Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Bartholomew.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a biracial household of artistic healthcare workers near Houston, Texas, and started drawing at a young age. In high school, my affinity for the arts expanded dramatically. I picked up contemporary ballet, played music as a marimbist, and continued to draw. I took summer school courses so I could fit art classes into my schedule, but also realized that healthcare was likely in my future as I became more interested in science. The examples from my parents and siblings laid out a path of responsibility over creativity, and stability over risk.
I attended Collegiate High School at College of the Mainland in Texas City, earning my Associate’s Degree in 2014 along with my high school diploma. During that time, I took heavy course loads to fit pre-nursing science courses and art classes each semester. It was then that I was introduced to the world of figure drawing, and to the professor who challenged, encouraged, and deeply inspired me: Mark Greenwalt. Mark’s style of teaching and his peculiar art still have a profound influence on who I am as an artist today. Drawing the figure from life quickly became my favorite form of art. I also developed a taste for darker imagery and communicating a depth of ideas through artwork.
I chose to initially pursue nursing rather than art, earning my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2015 at age nineteen. During my two years of nursing school, I worked as a figure drawing model for local universities and art schools. It was the best way for me to continue to receive instruction and network with other artists, and that time was incredibly valuable to me.
I began my career in nursing as a pediatric cardiac ICU nurse in Houston. I expanded my roles to include education and leadership and also managed the heart-lung machine used when children are on the verge of dying. I was commissioned to draw a pet portrait for a coworker in 2017, which catalyzed three years of commissioned portraits. I was glad to get the chance to practice my art again but felt somewhat pulled away from the imagery that truly appealed to me.
I have now been a nurse for seven years. When the opportunity arose, I enrolled online in 2020 to pursue my MFA at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Obtaining this degree has been rocky – waves of doubt, overwhelming stress, bouts of depression, the pandemic, and death in my family – all of that have shaped my experience and everything I have learned. Moreover, my skills and breadth of knowledge about art dramatically increased, and I was able to focus on creating a body of work that is deeply personal and satisfied my need for communicating about difficult concepts. I also worked full-time for the majority of my degree, in a healthcare system that is rapidly and dangerously crumbling. I received my Master of Fine Art with an Emphasis in Painting & Drawing in May 2023.
I now reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a move I made in late 2019. In 2022, I became more active in community organizing, and am part of several movements in the Twin Cities as a volunteer – labor, climate justice, health justice, and women’s rights. One of my goals is to create art that has meaning and gives life and acknowledgment to the suffering and problems that many of us face as individuals or collective communities. I believe art has the power to move people, incite change, and inspire progress, and I hope to do that with mine.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Overall, I would say my road to becoming an artist has been full of twists and turns, but I have also been fortunate in many ways. I planned several times to transition from a career in nursing to a full-time professional artist, but year after year kept pushing the transition date back.
This process sometimes left me in doubt that it would ever happen. Some of the most difficult times were the years when I lost touch with art, and earning my MFA. When I began nursing, I dove so fully into the profession that I did not leave much time to make art. Although I deeply enjoyed learning about and practicing nursing, the lack of creative expression through art felt like a gaping hole inside me.
After that first pet portrait, the hole was filled somewhat, but I constantly felt like I was letting people down by missing deadlines for commissions due to my nursing work requirements. I was stuck between wanting to advance my career as a nurse and wanting to make more art. The pandemic hit one month into starting my MFA, which radically reshaped my nursing experience, and added an extra layer of stress to an already demanding graduate program. On top of that, I had to stop taking commissions to fulfill my classwork. I continued working full-time and dropped my class load to part-time, so the degree took longer than I originally expected.
However difficult it felt at the time, in hindsight I realize that I was lucky in many ways. I had unending support from my spouse and friends, encouragement from my family, and my nursing coworkers were my first collectors. My experiences as a nurse now enhance my art, and the work provided me with enough stability to pursue my ultimate goal of becoming a professional artist.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in figurative oil painting, merging a Classically-inspired approach to the nude figure with contemporary sociopolitical commentary. My current body of work is titled Two Degrees Warmer – a large-scale series that narrates the story of the climate crisis through the bodies of women.
Each painting features a solitary female figure whose form is marred by a particular cause or effect of climate breakdown. The women represent the Earth itself, personifying climate change and its impacts. I use medically-inspired imagery to create bizarre but believable parallels between personal injury and climatic changes. I exclusively paint women in this series because women bear the brunt of climate impacts globally, but have an unjust lack of agency within the world’s male-dominated governance, both public and private.
My work explores the unique convergence of feminism and environmentalism, sometimes called “ecofeminism”, as well as themes of environmental justice related to race, poverty, and global power structures. My paintings hold space for complexity, placing the shocking nature of visible injuries side by side with the beauty of the human body. I believe what ultimately sets my work apart from other artists is that multifaceted marriage of human form, allegory, environmental topics, and medical imagery.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I have an upcoming solo exhibit featuring Two Degrees Warmer where the entire completed series will be on display for the first time.
The opening reception will be on July 8th and 9th from 11 am – 6 pm on both days at the Holland Arts East Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. Admission is free and open to the public.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brookebartdoesart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookebartdoesart/
- Other: https://nemaa.org/artists/brooke-bartholomew/
Image Credits
Bob Dabbelt (Ten Five Studios) and Brooke Bartholomew
