Meet Cath Branwood | Artful Alternatives – Artist, Photographer and Poet.

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

Hi Cath, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I am originally from the UK. I was raised in the central area of the country where the popular show “Peaky Blinders” is based. While these days it is not nearly the dark and gritty place which the show portrays, it is still very industrial and grey and for me always lacked a certain vibrancy in life which I have found through travelling. I have always been an artist, but where I came from is perhaps why I sought out creativity and an artistic path to bring me out of a world lacking it. I was raised by a a gentle, kind father and a very successful career-driven woman. My mother was the daughter of a poor Welsh coal miner and then went to the top of her ladder and field to the point she was highly honored by the Queen in 2000. She always put much gravity on academic achievement which this artist conformed to by becoming a lawyer in the UK, but internally battled against my whole life. Only recently have I reached a point where the battle has subsided and the constant thought I have ‘big shoes to fill’ being my mother’s daughter has kind of dissolved. I wonder if it will ever go away entirely? Now what I realize is that while she challenged me, she also gave me a strong belief that I was capable of achieving whatever I wanted to. I always knew instinctively as a result of my mother’s role modelling that being a woman or being financially or demographically less advantaged was never going to be a reason or excuse for me not to do anything. I bring these thoughts into my life as an artist, every day, because the art world remains dominated by male artists and a elitist mindset around what is or isn’t art.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Artful Alternatives is my visual brand. I have travelled widely and followed many career paths but knew art was always my true purpose. I am currently bringing to life, original, contemporary artwork through paintings, digital art, murals, photography, and spoken poems in Florida. The main goal behind the brand and business Artful Alternatives is to encourage people to ignite their own creative sparks. I do this by sharing the broad and varied content of my own creative work with the world and being a creative encourager to artists who surround me. Through being a person who encourages the Artful in everyone, I want to be a big part of building a stronger and more dynamic creative community. I can get creatively inspired by almost everyone I meet here and everything I experience in life, so my work is varied and pivots in style, based on the world around me. Follow my Artful Alternatives social media to see my personal and creative growth and progress. I am currently working on a tandem series of pieces for a solo exhibit scheduled for July 2021 in The Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, entitled The “Me, You and Them” Exhibition. I didn’t just want this to be a show of my work. I believe in building community, and so the aim of the show is to make us feel connected as human beings. The show’s pieces will be contrasting in content and style, inspired by the pandemic isolation and ever changing life events of 2020. The first series is entitled “Me” – A representation showing the human condition of being alone and yet the normalcy personal solitude which I think everyone can identify with. These are done through mostly black and white painted self-portraits. The second series is “Them” – A group of colorful lineal poster like portraits, reflecting inspirational historical and modern icons who surround us. These are individuals who have inspired me and lifted me up in times of challenge and conflict. I hopes the artwork will inspire us all to be better if we pay close attention to the words of creative wisdom these icons have shared. Words, which I also incorporates as a key part of the portraits. The “You” part of the exhibit depends mostly on who shows up and witnesses it. I have created digital portraits of recognizable icons which will be mixed in with images of local people who have allowed me to sketch them. I am still looking for more people to get involved, so readers can get in touch if they’d like b to sketch their portrait!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If you come to Florida and visit me, you know I am not likely to be sitting on a beach with you unless it is sunset time. I am an artist based in Naples we’d head to the Bayshore Arts District as it’s the closet thing this town has to Miami-Wynwood. You have Celebration Park down there food trucks and bars with lots of murals by Nick Rapp and others and live painting going on at night. There’s a great coffee shop for breakfast which supports local artists, called Bean to Cup coffee lounge with organic coffee, yummy food and outdoor seating by the water. Then while on Bayshore we’d head onto my secret happy place, the Naples Botanical Gardens. This girl from the UK, loves being amongst the tropical plants with a macro lens, moving slowly, taking photographs and sketching there just for fun. Currently they have beautiful and huge metal sculptures by Steve Tobin which look like root systems and fit the landscapes perfectly but the garden always find fun ways to incorporate art and artists with their plant life. After the garden’s while still on Bayshore Drive, we’d go grab a curry from I Love Curry a family run place with a logo mural of mine and the most authentic Indian food in town. This artist is a night owl for sure, so I would make sure any local visitor take in some of the incredible local musical talent we have here in South West Florida, many of whom I have had the pleasure of photographing. Dog Tooth Bar has a great Blues Jam with the band Mud Bone on Tuesday evenings and on rare occasions the nimble guitar fingers of blues men Little Eddie and Josh Rowand will light up the stage with them too, Rip Tide Brewery has a cool new Latin themed evening on Wednesdays with Havy Rodriguez and yummy short rib sandwiches by Sangwish Food Truck. and they have regular artist installs at the bar too. If they came in March, they’d see my work is featured! Another musician well worth searching out for a gig is Mr Chris Bepko, a incredibly talented ‘modern one man band’ with a looper who plays in locations in Fort Myers, Naples and Cape Coral, If one night we wanted to sit in a higher end dining environment with great sea food, I would head to Bayshore Restaurant. The house band there are always amazing and if we got lucky we’d pick a night where Matthew Chadwick was sending out some favorite Beatles or Johnny Cash songs. For people who love modern and contemporary art, Naples art can occasionally seem a bit palm trees, pelicans and ocean unless you know where to look and be. To inspire them, I would show them the work of local artists such as Mully, Marcus Zotter, Artist Ryanne, Ten to Two and Monika Bokelman displayed at Organically Twisted, Cosmic Kava, Lowe Brow Pizza and The Founders Bistro. I’d look out for the calendar of The Think Box studio who often do unique installations featuring Artistic Science and Bent custom Neon with popular trending artists such as Renda Writer and Chromeface. I also would bring them up to the new gallery of Artsemble Underground in Bell Tower Shops, Fort Myers. Those guys, Cesar Aguilera and Brian Weaver always have fun art stuff happening! But after a packed week of all things art, to be really cool, I’d take my visitor to a little secret underground studio where myself and other local artists hang out and musicians often show up on days off or after gigs just to relax and jam together. It’s a privilege to be around such talent, They inspire me everyday.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shout out goes to the artist community of South West Florida. I really feel that I would not have have maintained my creative path here without the abundance of artists, photographers, musicians and creatives who are so open to collaborating and sharing their work, tips, process, struggles and methods of breaking through barriers, It is through exciting forward thinking discussion with driven artists like me, that I think we are on the edge of exploding into a more open place which welcomes the contemporary art and creativity that our east coast Miami based counterparts already enjoy.

Website: https://www.artful-alternatives.com/

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