Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Bernhard.
Hi Brian, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Brian A. Bernhard and I am a creative human. A long time ago, a former professor of mine once described the differences between artists and designers to me. They said, “An artist creates problems and a designer solves them.” Ever since, I have worn both hats proudly. As an artist, I create concepts and ideas that push boundaries and explore issues that encourage people to think outside their comfort zones. However, as a designer, I make an attempt to consider who the audience is, what I want to communicate, and what the best delivery system is for the information I’m curating.
My story began as a wee little swamp rat in the bowels of Gum Swamp, Virginia. For reasons unknown to me, I have always been drawn to the strange and unusual. However, being relatively isolated in a part of the world largely devoid of outside cultural influence beyond my own family, my early influences were primarily television and movies.
As a kid born in the 70s, in the swamp lands of Virginia, there was no cable TV to be found. Our house was not wired for it, so we only had access to a handful of channels. We had the typical NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX, but the real one for me was PBS. I somehow discovered Monty Python’s Flying Circus broadcasting on PBS when I was a kid, and that changed everything. Humor and storytelling drilled themselves into every cell of my body. Following the Python broadcast every weekend was the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, another major influence in my personal weird flavor stack of inspiration. Then, right around the time I was in elementary school, I was glued to watching Bob Ross. His happy little trees and clouds inspired this 8-year-old to want his first sketchbook and pack of colored pencils.
Back then, art was just a way to pass the time. It brought me joy, but I did not personally know any professional artists. I had not been to any art galleries or contemporary museums yet, or even in an environment where art and creativity were respected as a career option.
I inadvertently stumbled into my professional artistic journey while in my second year of college. I had signed up for a science class that was canceled in the last minute. While scrambling to figure out what to fill the time slot up with, my brother suggested I sign up for a few art classes.
Eventually, I earned my BFA with a major in sculpture and a minor in painting. Which resulted in me landing a job in NYC creating, producing, and editing arts and culture television programming, where I eventually won an NYC Emmy. After a good long while working in television, I opted to go to graduate school, where I earned my MFA in design and technology.
After my grad school journey, I relocated to California for a bunch of years, where I explored my own creative and artistic businesses, showed my work at a bunch of different galleries, and found a decent amount of success featuring my art at artist alley tables in conventions and art markets all across California.
As time always marches forward, I realized that parents and loved ones needed more help back east than I was able to provide from 3000 miles away, so I relocated back to Virginia in order to help them.
I have since reopened my creative art business called Embrace the Weird here in Virginia, where, in addition to featuring my artworks in a gallery environment, I have developed a series of immersive creative workshop experiences, which take participants through a wholly original creative journey. The experience is kind of what would happen if a traditional creative workshop had a baby with doctor Frankensteins laboratory and it mutated into the most unusual interactive educational live theater documentary you may ever experience.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There has been nothing remotely smooth about my creative and artistic journey. For every step forward, there has been a million things pushing back. I have never lacked creative drive, and my ability to creatively problem-solve any situation is second to none; however, my ability to connect with an audience and communicate clearly the concepts of my original artworks has always been dicey. I tend to come up with concepts and ideas that are just a little too soon for most folks to wrap their heads around. I am also not interested in compromising my morals and boundaries in order to achieve certain goals. Generating sausage content in order to appease the social media gods for internet fame is not one of my goals in life.
However, building up an online audience is one of the few tools we artists have in our low-budget promotional arsenal. However, in person, human interaction has always been my preferred method of connecting my work to other humans; however, that’s much more challenging to properly scale. While there are outliers, all too often we artists are our own worst enemies when it comes to our creative business, and I am no exception. I will always struggle with the valuation of my creative work; saying no to potential gigs, clients, or collectors because of undervalued proposals will always feel uncomfortable to me. Maintaining a motivated, positive outlook and staying creatively driven will continue to be a lifelong struggle in a world full of AI, scam artists, and corporations always trying to beat down, devalue, take advantage of, and rip off the legitimate creative community.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have been making art using almost every medium for many decades. I paint, I draw, I sculpt, I photograph, I write, I edit, I make moving pictures, I tell stories, and I make books. I use physical tools, like brushes, pens, saws, and clay, as well as digital tools, in order to create my unique and original visions and worlds.
I am currently focusing my energies in combining all my skill sets into writing, creating, producing, building, and hosting immersive creative art-making experiences. I create unique events that combine visual narrative, traditional storytelling, immersive interactive theater, sound design, projection mapping, lighting effects, and art-making into one mind-blowing experience.
These new experiences are so completely original that I have never seen or heard of anything remotely like them. I have researched to try and find anything remotely like it in order to help me promote the experiences, but I have been unsuccessful in my searches. However, everyone that has participated in the experience has loved every minute of it. The most common feedback from participants is always, “When can I do another one?”, however, I have also heard, “This is legitimately the coolest thing I have ever done and made!”, which I thought was pretty dang cool.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I am pretty much an open book when it comes to my close friends and family. If anyone has cared enough to pay attention, they shouldn’t be surprised by much anything. I suppose it all depends on how long folks have known me. lol.
I once got to direct a comedy sketch featuring one of my childhood heroes (Weird Al), that was broadcast on national television. Which was a huge personal milestone highlight for me. Most people who don’t really know me, once they experience my creative work, are surprised to learn that I don’t smoke, drink alcohol, or do any drugs. I don’t have anything against anyone who chooses to partake in any of those experiences, but they have just never been my personal cup of tea.
I toured as a bass guitar-playing clown in an industrial rock band.
When I was a teenager, I was crowd surfing at a Ramones concert, and the crowd tossed me up in the air and directly at Joey Ramone. He caught me in mid-air without missing a lyric, set me down, encouraged me to sing in the mic with him for a few lines, then grabbed me by the back of the belt and heaved me back into the crowd. It was an absolutely mind-blowing experience.
I was also carjacked once, but that’s not surprising, as I turned that experience into a comic, which is in my self-published graphic novel, called “Clownland”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.embracetheweird.design
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/abrand4weirdos
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/abrand4weirdos
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrianBernhard
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/embrace-the-weird-richmond?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
- Other: https://maps.app.goo.gl/eVFfond34wc3csdAA
