The Autonomous Creative Making the leap from (art) school to pro creative, with Brendan Keen, Mariel Capanna, and Brittany Bennett
Breaking into a creative field, whether you choose to be self-employed or not, can really leave you feeling like you're up the creek without a paddle. Who are you supposed to talk to, and when? Also, where do you find them? What are you supposed to do in the meantime until things...happen? And once you start doing that thing, how you do know when to stop?
We talked about it all at this panel discussion I moderated with three dynamic young artists, Brendan Keen, Mariel Capanna, and Brittany Bennett, about navigating the difficult transition from school to the working world. Each of them is following a unique path, and has tons to share about what they did wrong...and right!
About our guests
Brendan Keen
https://www.brendankeenstudio.com/
Brendan Keen is an artist and fabricator currently based in West Philadelphia. He was a transfer student at PAFA, where he majored in sculpture. He graduated with a BFA 2012, and was awarded the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Travel scholarship, which meant he stayed a fifth year at PAFA and received a certificate in 2013.
When he finished school, he joined the West Philadelphia-based arts collaborative studio and workshop, the Philadelphia Traction Company. Along with the other artists at Traction, he exhibited his sculpture and collaborative works in Philadelphia and San Francisco.
For the past eight years Brendan has worked full time as a self-employed Artist and fabricator, creating sculptural installations for public and private clients, including the Logan hotel, the W hotel, the Discovery Center, and private residences.
In between jobs, Brendan travels whenever possible, including across Western Europe and around Iceland via bicycle, and most recently across the U.S. in a DIY sprinter camper van.
Mariel Capanna
Mariel Capanna is a fine artist specializing in fresco who graduated with a BFA from PAFA 2012, and she was awarded the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Travel scholarship, which means she spent an extra year at PAFA and was awarded a certificate in 2013.
She received her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2020. She attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2017.
She’s exhibited many places, including Adams and Ollman (Portland), Central Park (Los Angeles), Gross McCleaf Gallery (Philadelphia), and Good Weather (North Little Rock), COOP (Nashville) and at the Bowtie Project (Los Angeles).
And has been the recipient of numerous residencies and fellowships (in addition to the Cresson): the 2019 Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Traveling Fellowship Recipient, the 2018 Haverford College VCAM Philadelphia Artist-in-Residence, a 2016 Tacony LAB Artist-in-Residence, a 2014 Independence Foundation Visual Arts Fellow, the Guapamacátaro Arts & Ecology Residency and The Mountain School of Art in 2016.
Mariel currently serves as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Studio Art at Williams College, and a Fresco Instructor at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Her ongoing project Little Stone, Open Home, with Good Weather is a long-term and perpetually changing fresco in a single-car garage in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Brittany Bennett
https://bennettbc.wixsite.com/rad-river
https://www.streamstudioschop.com/
https://www.brittanycbennett.com/
Brittany Bennett is a medical illustrator who graduated from the joint PAFA/PENN program in 2014. At PAFA, Brittany focused on academic oil painting and graphite drawing. Her work from this time is the result of meticulous observation of textures in nature and a celebration of details.
After graduating, she completed a graduate program for Medical and Biological Illustration at Johns Hopkins.
She currently works at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where half her week is in Stream Studios servicing the hospital network at large, and the other half she runs RIVER: a medical illustration service just for the Radiology Department.
She is an artist with training in biology, anatomy, and visual communication who creates didactic illustrations and other visual aids. Brittany works with medical professionals at CHOP to produce patient education materials, figures for scientific literature, illustrated surgical training guides, 3D anatomical models, and more.