Artistic inspiration can come from anywhere, but as time passes, it increasingly comes from online resources. That could mean anything from an inspiring Pinterest board to checking out AI art. For senior visual artist Brooke Germain, itās the first. Germainās piece Digital Puberty is the cover of Brushfireās Spring 2024 edition.
āA lot of artists have more of an education in the classics,ā Germain says. āMy main influences for my art began online.ā
If Tumblr were still a popular media site, Germain would have thousands of followers. Her curated Instagram is filled with indie sleaze-esque pictures, including much of her art. We met after a shared public relations class (sheās majoring in journalism and minoring in graphic design), and her cool-girl attitude knocked me off my feet.
There are many influences in Germain’s piece Digital Puberty, which happens to be the cover of the Brushfire Spring 2024 edition. Germain highlights her Instagram likes from 2011, a photo of her bikini, carpet from her childhood home, and pictures from recent summers as the main parts of Digital Puberty. She wanted to complete a piece about what she found aspirational as a child.
Germain is not alone in thisā art grows with the times, and the times are getting technical. Social media allows users to follow any artist with an account, which wasnāt possible 20 years ago. 20 years ago, Germain also couldnāt have used Procreate, which is what she used to edit parts of photos for the main piece. She brought it all together in Photoshop; art is everchanging.
āIt was stuff like pictures of puppies and Voldemort,ā Germain says with a laugh. āI was like, āIām gonna really edit this so you canāt tell what it is.ā I wanted it to be authentic to that time.ā
As a child, Germain was very artistic. She began drawing pretty young and illustrated her own stories in elementary school. She won the esteemed Reading Rainbow award in kindergarten for Best Illustration, and itās only been uphill from there. Things opened up in high school when she began creating more and illustrating digital ideas.
āGen Alpha is growing up completely with technology,ā Germain says. āI think a lot about that little section of my life where I wasnāt using a screen ever. There was a big shift in my habits.ā
Another piece of hers, Heaven Sent Lamprey (also in Brushfire Spring 2024), took a bit of a different path. Germain thrifted the picture frame in the piece and thought it was so cuteā too cute. She knew it needed something scarier, so she drew a picture of a lamprey in charcoal. Germain first saw a lamprey, an evil-looking fish, in a book about sea creatures she had as a child.
This ties into another place of inspiration for Germainā religion. She attended a Catholic school until college, and she feels it shaped a large part of who she is. It helps that Catholicism specifically has a lot of romantic undertones, something Brooke leans towards in her art naturally. The nostalgic factor of religion plays a big role in her art.
āI do have a religious background. I donāt really practice anymore,ā Germain says. āBut I do still hold on to those values a little bit. This lamprey really is one of Godās creatures, even though it looks like it came out of Hell.ā
Growing up is obviously a big part of Germainās work (see: Digital Puberty), but girlhood specifically is what makes her creative juices flow. She cites Sofia Coppola as a big inspiration, and we talk about our favorites (hers is The Bling Ring). Coppola is known for directing stories about girlhood and what it means to grow up female.Ā
She also really enjoys the work of Louise Bourgeois, a French artist. Bourgeois mostly works with sculptures and some paintings, but the nature of her work is very feminine. This flows well with Germainās other inspirations and her own creativity.
āIām obsessed with her. She’s just this old, cranky French woman,ā Germain says. āA lot of her work is also focused on her childhood and what itās like to be a girl.ā
Germain will graduate at the end of this semester with a major in Journalism (PR and Advertising emphasis) and a minor in graphic design. Post-graduation, sheād like to become a designer at an agency outside Reno. Working with fashion graphics or at a PR firm is her first goal, but sheās open to anything. Her main concern is seeing art as a source of income. Some of the āfunā of art is taken out when relying on it as a livelihood. By looking away from the dollar, Brooke will grow and thrive anywhere.
āI wouldnāt want to make a career out of my art, because then it would take some of the joy out of it,ā Germain says. āI donāt like having that pressure on me when Iām making art.ā
Brooke can be found on Instagram @9ermain.