Brian Brenno
Bio
I am primarily know as a glass artist, I got my start in glass with a stained glass in the late 1970s as a teenager. I received a BFA in glass from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1985. After college I worked on Dale Chihuly’s glass blowing team for 10 years before starting my glass studio on Vashon in 1997. Since 1989 I have been producing a series of glass hats. My hat series is shown in fine craft galleries nationally. My wife and I developed a line of glasswork for home and garden, sold at local craft and garden shows for many years. In 2011, inspired by contemporary folk art I had seen in exhibits at the Mia Gallery in Seattle I began a series of images made from cut up pop and beer can pieces, nailed to plywood, for an exhibit at the Blue Heron Gallery on Vashon Island. I continue to produce and exhibit both my glass and tin can art.
Artist Statement
I use recycled materials as a way to transform to everyday disposable items use. Using pop and beer cans provides an amazing palette to create with. I build an image from a photo, the cans are cut up into mosaic pieces and nailed piece by piece, layer by layer to create the image. My tin can work allows me to create images in a kind of sculptural way, instead of a painterly way, which fits my way of doing things. I am much better with tools and dimensional materials, than pencil, paper, canvas or brush. Unlike a painter I cannot blend, tint, or change colors to create depth, light, shade or form. I like the challenge of using a can’s, colors, patterns, text and surface to create depth, light, shade and form. I also use a can’s ability to take texture and lift off the surface to become 3 dimensional, helping me tell the visual story. If you have lived around here all of your life, like I have, you may relate to Chrissy Hind’s lyric, “Hey Ho where did you go Ohio,” (Seattle-Tacoma), like I do. My tin can images represent the quaint, funky Puget Sound area that is disappearing day by day.
Please wait, it may take sometime ...
1-Always Use "Landscape" mode Layout in print settings.
2-Use default margins.
Brian Brenno
I use recycled materials as a way to transform to everyday disposable items use. Using pop and beer cans provides an amazing palette to create with. I build an image from a photo, the cans are cut up into mosaic pieces and nailed piece by piece, layer by layer to create the image. My tin can work allows me to create images in a kind of sculptural way, instead of a painterly way, which fits my way of doing things. I am much better with tools and dimensional materials, than pencil, paper, canvas or brush. Unlike a painter I cannot blend, tint, or change colors to create depth, light, shade or form. I like the challenge of using a can’s, colors, patterns, text and surface to create depth, light, shade and form. I also use a can’s ability to take texture and lift off the surface to become 3 dimensional, helping me tell the visual story. If you have lived around here all of your life, like I have, you may relate to Chrissy Hind’s lyric, “Hey Ho where did you go Ohio,” (Seattle-Tacoma), like I do. My tin can images represent the quaint, funky Puget Sound area that is disappearing day by day.
