Last weekend I had a chance to visit my homie Richard. We watched a lame hockey game and sprinkled in some of the LAKER game. Yeah that’s right, the one that got them into (insert crazy loud voice) the finals with Boston!!!!!!!!! Was so hard to focus on the sports, with his wife painting in the same room. I figure if your reading this, you can care less about the Lakers and would much rather hear about Richards’s wife. I think her name is Brandi Bad Ass Milne, she has a solo show at Corey Helford on the 26th of this month.

I took the trip HB to check out her new works for the show. Needless to say, I was stoked to find a house full of badass paintings… hence her middle name. Was first introduced to Brandi’s work at Gallery 1988 around four-ish years ago. I remember instantly gravitating to what she was doing back then and happy to report that she’s evolving. As you know, to evolve as an artist is a big deal. Similar to skating if there’s no progression, then why bother. Pack it up and do something else. One obvious area that’s different is the sizes of her pieces. Brandi typically paints small and for this show she has stepped out of her comfort zone and chosen a larger canvas. Don’t be surprised if you find her killing a back alley Mural off Melrose.

Before our meet, I had been wondering what would resonate betweens us. When I got there and we started talking, it hit me hard. It was the loss of her mother Vicki and how she’s made it a big part of her paintings. A few years before Brandi lost Vicki, I lost one of my best friends to cancer as well. Ada was my tia that came over from Nicaragua to watch over us wile our parents worked. She raised me as her own and I looked at her as my mother. It was a difficult time in my life and can fully sympathize with Brandi’s loss. It’s one thing to go through that but to make it your subject matter is another. I can appreciate art that is simple and solely created to be eye candy. However when you step out and make it as personal as Brandi has, it elevates the art to another level. One piece for the show was so personal that she had it wrapped as to avoid dwelling on it. Even as I tried to pry she was hesitant to get into the history. I hate to admit this but as we told each others story, I found my self fighting the tears… Yeah I’m a softie. I’m stoked to find her striving and struggling with her work. It can and will only lead to good places. As my favorite expression goes, nothing comes from nothing.