Mid-Week Intermission Artist Edition: Adrian Landon Brooks, Our LC Tote Artist
In this town, we all know that you can kick your boots in any direction and come across the best mural you’ve ever seen — every single day! We caught up with muralist Adrian Landon Brooks to see how he draws inspo from our community and those quintessential Texas vibes. He also happens to be the artist behind our Long Center tote bag. Read on to discover your new favorite Austin muralist.
WAIT, THERE ARE TOTES?
Yeah, there are totes! Swing by a free Drop-In show and you can grab yours with a $20 donation to the Long Center. Your donation helps us keep doing cool stuff — you know, like supporting local artists like Adrian 🙂
My name is Adrian Landon Brooks and I’m a Muralist, painter, and creator based out of Austin, TX.
I’ve spent the majority of my adult years pursuing a career in the visual arts, and the last 5 with a focus on commercial mural work. I’ve created permanent murals/installations for companies such as Facebook, Google, and Indeed. In addition to my mural work, I maintain a studio at Canopy in Austin and create studio work for exhibitions in the states and abroad.
I grew up in Houston, TX, and later relocated to San Fransisco to attend SFAI. After college, my family and I ultimately settled in the hill country oustide of Austin. That combination of places influenced much of what I’m creating now. I was drawn to the bay area by artists like Barry McGee and the beautiful losers era. I found deep inspiration from my time in California, but Texas had a way of pulling me back when the time was right. Austin is where I met my wife and found my creative community.
I’m influenced by the materials I work with and a focus on sharp/clean lines. Most of my work comes from a place of inspiration that is more design based than anything else. I’m influenced by traditional folk art and the utilitarian approach to choosing materials. Most of my studio work is made on Texas native wood chunks and antique objects collected along my journey. The pieces themselves generally dictate my creative process and inspire much of my work.
The murals I create take my interest in design to a different level. They give me the chance to explore shape, color, and composition on a scale much larger than my studio work. It’s an interesting process to take a part of a painting that is a couple feet and blow that section up to 10 feet. Sometimes that process reveals imagery that is universal in scale and at other times is problematic. It’s been a challenging and rewarding process to push my work’s boundaries in that way.
Austin has ultimately made my creative career aspirations a reality. I attribute that to the community around me and the companies/galleries/collectors who choose to support the local creatives as opposed to bringing in artists from out of state. I admire the pride we have here for our creative community and the people who champion our artists.
Much of what I just mentioned applies to my latest project with the Long Center. I find it really admirable for such a large Austin institution to be supporting the local arts in creative ways. I was really excited to create something to celebrate that spirit. My specific design was a visual ode to the building’s architecture and surroundings. I wanted to have the recognizable arch present but intermingled with some of my core imagery — suns, moons, and pattern run through most of my work. I hope this image helps celebrate such an important landmark in Austin.
I just wrapped up my busiest month-to-date creating murals for Indeed, Chick Nic, and Hotel McCoy in College Station. I have one more mural in Austin to complete this summer and will be in the studio creating work for a show in Milan this November. I never lose gratitude for the opportunities that come my way to share the things I create. I’m looking forward to continuing my creative pursuit in Austin and beyond. I welcome anyone looking to elevate their space to contact me via email or social media to chat. I’m always looking to start on the next project.
— Adrian
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