Meet Justin C.M. Brown | Justin C.M. Brown | Artist, Musician, Sociologist

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

Hi Justin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I pursue artistic expression because I believe it gives me the greatest opportunity to know myself and the world around me. By giving myself permission and authority to create, I often find that what comes out is some expression of who I am, or maybe how I think. It’s a way to crystallize a thought which couldn’t exist in any other form other than the art which it is. It’s a way to show the world what I’m thinking, and sometimes, I find out what that is at the same time everyone else does. Creating art is one of many ways to understand who you are in the world. If it’s possible, I would like to really truly understand the world and who I am in it. I chose art as a means to attempt this pursuit. I have had a good time doing so, and I think I would continue even if there weren’t greater ambitions involved.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I describe myself as an absurdist artist, which refers to the writing and philosophy of Albert Camus. I generally believe that my art does not have a singular objectively true meaning, and while I can and certainly do form my own ideas about what any particular piece means, I don’t feel like my idea about what it might be is any more right than any other person’s idea of it. It is my hope that people look at my art and form new ideas about existing concepts. I know that is very heady and broad, but from my own personal experience in observing art, I find that seeing particular elements in any given piece may spark a thought which is completely unrelated to the art, but still is directly caused by it somehow. So I really like art that is up for interpretation, and that’s what I generally try to make. I imagine that many artists (quite rightfully) pride themselves on an ability to communicate a mood, or a feeling. It’s amazing when it’s clear what the artist’s intention is; it’s really incredible when artists can really come straight through with both the energy AND the feeling. I think my art has a lot of energy, and you can use that energy to decide for yourself what the feeling is. It’s not a fixed thing. I know this description is a very loose adaptation of Camus’ philosophy, but I do genuinely use it as my own mental framework for creating art, so that’s good enough for me.

I’m currently majoring in Sociology in my junior year at UCLA, and the more I get through this coursework the more I recognize and appreciate the social function of visual art to communicate energy, feeling, and thought. Sometimes I imagine that I’ll move in the direction of direct social critique in my art, but in a way, the world has gotten to be such a way that even the act of creating art feels like a social critique, for better or worse. It seems like the more I learn about modes of production or the historical weight of opinion, the more I learn about my own art. It’s unfolding for me too, I guess. It’s like one day you don’t know about massification and the next day you do, and it just forms so many new opportunities to understand what’s already there. It’s a strange trip to keep one eye on art and one eye on society, actually because over time, they end up saying a lot of the same things. Belonging. Identity. Fear. Home. Love. Nature. Death. Power. Desire. Curiosity. Cycles. Those kinds of perennial human cognition…it is present to the point we don’t notice how omnipresent it really is. I would love to say that’s what my art is really about, but that’s only effective until you notice that most things in this world are.

What I want people to know about me is that I really believe that all of my creative artwork begins in tiny ideas, just little creative thoughts that I grab and hold onto and turn into something. I think it comes from these little creative thoughts that I have, and I sincerely believe that most if not all human beings experience these little creative thoughts too. I want people to know that I personally believe that they can be (and most likely already are) artists. To the person reading this right now: I believe you can make art which entertains you, which comforts you, which speaks true to who you are as a human. And I hope you do.

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.
Here’s a great day in Los Angeles: Go to Falafel Inc in Westwood. Go crazy, it’s delicious, part of their profit helps refugees, they’re consistent and nice. Take the food to go, a few blocks away is the UCLA Botanical Garden. Take the food, find a spot you like, eat there. Wander, look at flowers, it’s a great space. Then, you can walk up the street to the UCLA Sculpture garden. All free, all outdoor, real nice. After that, if the weather is nice, go to Runyon Canyon in Hollywood. Do the trail, but don’t forget water. If it’s hot, go to the Getty for air-conditioned art viewing. The views are so great, and you can just soak up art at any speed you like. Either way, catch a show at the Hollywood Bowl at night. Maybe the next day, go downtown to Santee Alley for impulse shopping, but mostly just to get lost in the bustle. Olvera Street near Union Station is great too. Also, the Flower District is awesome.

To me, Los Angeles is a lot about the liminal spaces, the hills, the alleys, the corner stores. I love all those places I listed before, but there’s more to L.A. than places with addresses or yelp scores. If your best friend shows up to LA, you should go on an adventure, and that means you don’t know where you’re going either. Try something new so that you both can share in the moment, and then when they leave you can remember them there and text them stuff like “guess where I am?”. One eternally great thing about L.A. is there is always a new place to try. For everybody who tries to show off the city to visitors, may I suggest this: focus on welcoming the visitor, and let the city show off for itself.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am so in love with my partner, Andrea Gambino. We met at the bus stop when I was 7 and today she is the most wonderful support and inspiration I could ever imagine. I’m so grateful for my family and friends, collaborators in Los Angeles, my band mates, my promoter friends, the people who come to shows, the people in my local stores and farmer’s market. I’m so grateful for all the random strangers on the internet who interact with my art. I’m especially lucky to know my little dachshund friend, Pacino (Pacino says Hi). It seems more and more likely that somehow my art is a sum of me and all my relationships to everything in the universe, and I have to say, I’m really fortunate to have the collection I’m working with. I couldn’t imagine being who I am without them.

Website: JCMBmade.com

Instagram: @JCMBmade

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincmbrown/

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AMajorMediaGroup

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