About Brenda

I create abstract, mixed media works on a variety of surfaces. I combine media, including paints, inks, pastels, herbal teas, and digital tools to depict imagery from dreams, meditation, and depth exploration of the psyche. Whenever possible, I upcycle draft and discarded prints of my work, cut them into small pieces, and install them into materials such as glass, metal, and resins, to create sustainable art jewelry.

In the beginning, I took photos of my travels in the early 2000s. You can see that work by selecting the “Photography” tab here on my website. They were shot primarily on film with an SLR and printed from negatives. I've tried to keep the photos as they were when originally shot and printed. I love the grain. My intention is for the images to capture a split second among a specific collection of people or subjects, that will never be experienced again.

Although I have been drawing for decades, my focused painting practice began in June of 2022. All creation is, for me, experimentation, navigating colors, elements, and compositions. I have a literal conversation with many of the images and live by the philosophy of Paul Klee (via South African portrait artist Cyril Coetzee), usually beginning a piece by “taking a line/pencil/brush for a walk.”

My work is a continuing expression of my longtime involvement with the ideas and methods of Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung. For more than twenty years, I have recorded my dreams and other waking images from the psyche. I engage with that content using a method Jung termed active imagination. In my daily practice of dialoguing with these elements, I see all manner of imagery that I attempt to express with these materials.

For me, glass, metal, and resin are bonus surfaces for extolling the image – another kind of frame or vehicle for transitioning the interface from two dimensions into three. Not all of my work becomes jewelry. I look closely at the environment of the painting, often greatly magnified, until I find features that I’m interested in exploring in-depth. I’m always looking for new ways to present and reveal the imagery, and for you to experience it. I’m interested in what inspires one client to hang a three-foot by four-foot print on their wall, while another would prefer to wear a two-square-centimeter portion of that art piece in a pendant.

Whenever possible, the prints used in the jewelry are upcycled and reused. The creation of new work and the fulfillment of client orders generates scrap paper, discards, and remnants, that aren’t saleable as art prints. My phenomenal local print team saves for me the discards they generate from producing my orders. My art jewelry was born from finding ways to incorporate those discards. The prints and their scraps come in different sizes, so even when images come from the same section of a painting, their varying dimensions (and then the behavior of the adhesives) ensure that no two jewelry pieces are identical.

I would love to hear about what you experience with the imagery - email me at imagery@manscribe.com. I hope you enjoy exploring my website here, where you can download free art, follow my blog, and see my latest work. Etsy members can also access my shop @ManscribeMediaworks by clicking HERE. Follow me on Instagram @manscribe and on Facebook @manscribemedia and @manscribe. Come to Sedona and see my mixed media work on display at the Village Gallery, located in Sedona’s Village of Oak Creek.