Meet Jesse Brown | Artist & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jesse Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jesse, why did you pursue a creative career?
I feel fortunate that from a very young age I knew I wanted to be an artist, so that was always something I felt I had to do. As far as it becoming a career, I landed there by chance as a teen when I was doing court-ordered community service at a Seattle public arts non-profit for as risk youth who were involved in the youth court system. The organization offered me a paid position after my hours were complete in the youth program and I started assisting the mural artists there. I had dropped out of school at 15 and felt like my options for career paths was extremely limited, I’ve never really learned another employable skill outside of creative work so in some ways that has made me committed to making it all work, like damn, I don’t even know what else I could do so this better work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The LA river is a place I like bringing people to, Frog Town is a good area to access it, the river is brutal and accidentally beautiful in ways the engineers never intended and I think that’s a great example of how Los Angeles can be. Then you need tacos, birria and consume in particular, so I’d say go to Teddy’s Red taco truck in Echo Park or if it’s late enough go get mulitas at the Taco Zone truck on Alvarado. Hauser + Wirth is a good visit and usually has an interesting show up, then you can see their bookstore plus there’s Hennessey + Ingalls around the corner on Santa Fe Ave which is all art, design and architecture books. Another great gallery near downtown is These Days who also have a really good book section. There’s a tiny hardware shop in Little Tokyo called Anzen that I like taking people too and evenings I would say go to Vista Hemosa Park or Elysian Park for sundown.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mentors at Urban Artworks, the public art non-profit I was involved in as a teen in 90’s, they were the people who I saw living as working artists and they made me feel like it was possible to make this a real thing. Also my friends who have taught me so much along the way, I never went back to school after dropping out at 15, so a lot of what I know is from my friends sharing what they had experience with or were learning in college. You could say that I’m a “self-taught” artist but I kind of reject the idea of that being a path that you make on your own, it’s only possible with support from others.

Website: www.jesse-brown.co

Instagram: @jesse_brown