Brent’s mission as an artist is beautifully uncomplicated: to inspire and evoke positive emotions in his viewers. Whether it’s happiness, creativity, or mindfulness, his work is designed to create a visceral connection.
This symbiotic relationship between artist and audience fuels Brent’s creative process, driving the vibrant energy that defines his paintings. From the playful Stuffed Animal Piles to the intricate Quilts, his art invites viewers to come closer, absorb the textures and revel in the myriad of colors. Brent hopes that the joy he experiences in his studio is passed along to everyone who encounters his work, encouraging them to interpret and imagine freely, staying present in the moment to truly appreciate the experience. His collaboration with Maddox Gallery, including a solo debut, marks a significant milestone in a career dedicated to bringing joy and inspiration to the world through art.
Popspoken: The textures in your work are incredibly detailed, evoking the feel of plush fabrics. What role does texture play in your storytelling, and how do you decide on the specific materials or objects you choose to depict?
Brent Estabrook: Texture plays an insane part in my artwork, whether it’s quilts or plushies. It gives the paintings life. Painting plush fabric taught me the importance of intentional texture within paintings. Even one single brushstroke laid on top of another can really depict depth within a painting so imagine hundreds, even thousands of brushstrokes! As for the materials or objects, the real answer is that I let my Creativity lead me. I often say that I’m not the one in full control of my paintings: My Creativity is.
Popspoken: The Perpetual Recess series, with its energetic and baroque compositions of stuffed animals, reinterpretations of classic cartoon characters and more, placed you on the contemporary art map. What inspired you to choose stuffed animals as your primary subject. What do they represent for you in the past and now?
Brent Estabrook: The seed for Perpetual Recess was planted one afternoon in 2015, hanging out with my niece and nephew, who were 5 and 7 at the time. It was a year after I graduated from dental school and they were showing me all their stuffed animals, running back and forth from their bedroom to the living room and throwing stuffed animal after stuffed animal onto a pile. Artistically, I remember looking down and thinking, this is very interesting, the colors, the textures, etc. but what hit me on a deeper level was what they were feeling. There was so much joy, love, and passion just radiating from them, I could tell they were having the time of their life. It is that passion, that joy that I realized I wanted to instill in my art.
These positive emotions of joy, wonder, happiness, playfulness, passion, and love are so powerful and I think that as adults we tend to lose some of that, especially the joy, playfulness, and unfiltered wonder and passion for life that we had as kids. I wanted my art to remind all of us, kids and grown ups alike, of that passion. I wanted to create art that above all, inspired joy.
It still represents that to me, even though I no longer do these incredibly meticulous and time-consuming paintings. The only way to get a Stuffed Animal Pile painting now is through one of my limited edition print releases. So now, they also have the layer of meaning that only closing a chapter can give you, more than just a sense of accomplishment, but an overwhelming sense of gratitude too for what those paintings did for me and my career.
Popspoken: You have mentioned that your artistic journey began in dental school out of frustration with student debt. As a non-conventional artist, how has being self-taught and this turning point shaped your view on art as a career, and how does it influence your current work?
Brent Estabrook: I think from the very beginning it helped me to embrace creative evolution as a foundational piece of my work and career and to take challenges and turn them into art. Those early pieces helped me realize that pursuing a career in art wasn’t just a dream but a feasible option for me. When I was getting my undergraduate degree, I studied art because I loved it. Art has always been something that I enjoy. Even when I took the rules very seriously, or even when I became a “serious” artist, my paintings themselves were never serious. There has always been an element of joy and playfulness. Now, I’ve let go of all of the rules. There are no mistakes, only perfect depictions of moments on the canvas. It’s very liberating.
Popspoken: Share with us some of the best moments in your artistic career thus far and the line you straddle between the passion of creation, as well as the commercial reality to be placed in celebrity homes as well as galleries around the world.
Brent Estabrook: The ever-continuing struggle, especially now, is that I only want to follow my creativity. I don’t want to think “Will this painting make me money?” I’m doing it purely and solely for the sake of the creation. Luckily I have a great team that helps make sure these creations do become economically feasible so that I can focus on pure creation.
One of the times when this straddling the line between passion and creation became obvious to me was when I made the decision to start painting my Quilts series. This was back in 2020 and my cRaZy stuFFed aniMAL paintings were, and still are, my most in-demand pieces and I went from painting these wacky, but very profitable pieces to essentially painting squares. Someone asked me, “Why are you painting these squares when these other pieces are selling so well?” and I just had to tell them that I knew my Creativity was telling me to pursue this, that there was something important that needed to be expressed in these Quilts paintings. Now, only four years later, Quilts are highly sought-after pieces as well.
Popspoken: How is joy evoked in others, and how does your practice inform others’ ideas of joy?
Brent Estabrook: I paint teddy bears and bright colors and everyone really has a different story or an idea of what brings them joy, but I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that everybody gets something positive out of my paintings. I paint that positivity, and happiness and joy. Whether it’s a stuffed animal or a colorful quilt, or a CRAZY quilt, it reminds them of the stories each of them create around joy. There are so many ways my work evokes joy in others, and I know that as long as I continue to create from a state of joy, thankfulness, and happiness, those feelings will pass into my paintings.
Popspoken Which were some of your most memorable art gallery moments, and why, in light of welcoming audiences in real life to immersive spaces, in an increasingly digital world? Tell us more about your experience at Gstaad at the Maddox Gallery, and how their vision in bringing contemporary art to the wider audience aligns with yours?
Brent Estabrook: There have been so many memorable moments, especially in Gstaad, this town is so peaceful. I just bring out my easel and palette in the morning, set up in front of the gallery, and I just create all day long. It’s been a very reaffirming and rewarding experience because I get to interact with so many people–adults, kids, all of them, and they love it.
In LA where I’m based, it’s like everything goes, nothing shocks people, but to be in a totally different country, in particular Switzerland, I get to see my work really challenging people in the sense that they might not understand it right away but they know they feel the joy within it. As I watch them move about the gallery, I can actually watch their opinions change. And it’s like their whole perspective on art shifts. It’s amazing.
Popspoken: Your solo debut with Maddox Gallery is a significant moment in your career. How did this collaboration come about, and what drew the gallery representatives to your work?
Brent Estabrook: It started in 2015 when the owner, Jay Rutland, reached out to me on social media. It wasn’t quite the right time but it opened up the relationship. Then fast forward to 2022, my wife got a TV show in London and was going to be away for three months and no joke, two days after she got the offer, Jay reached out again to ask if I wanted to do a show with them in London. The stars just aligned and I said yes right away. That’s how I did a residency with them in 2023, then another open studio event this last spring, and then Gstaad this summer. It’s been great working with them.
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