New full-time faculty, Briana Miyoko Stanley will speak on her artistic practice and goals as an assistant professor of art in the Boehm Gallery on Sept. 13 at 1p.m.

Stanley is excited to have Palomar as a home base after teaching part-time as an adjunct last year. “It’s been really great to just have some stability and be able to have longer relationships with students and be able to see students in multiple classes, rather than just having students for one semester,” Stanley noted.

When asked about what inspires her work, Stanley responded, “Definitely the environment, more specifically natural disasters in places I’ve lived.” More specifically, she cites the 7.8 earthquake that devastated New Zealand in 2016 and Montecito debris flow that affected Santa Barbara in 2018 as major factors that continue to shape her work.

Stanley shared that her pieces aren’t about reliving an event but about reconciliation and grappling the aftermath of a level of devastation that can be hard to understand. It is the road forward she wants to focus on.

“My biggest advice is to explore, Don’t assume that there’s something you’re not gonna like… Try your hand at it and see how it works for you. Sometimes it’s the things that are the biggest challenge that become the biggest assets for ourselves,” Stanley said of working with budding artists at a college level.

Stanley pointed out that her artist’s talk on Sept. 13 will touch on some similar subjects, “most of the talk will be about the art I create, why I create it,” as well as the potential for her personal journey to inspire students when the path forward seems uncertain.

One set of Briana Stanley’s watercolor and ink “Memory Disks” Photo credit: Victoria Gudmundson

Her talk will also address pivotal moments in her career and the selection of three sets of Memory Disks by Stanley that are on display at the Boehm Gallery. She expressed that she would go into more detail at the talk itself but gave us a preview. “Each of the diptyques is exploring this different memory and so I’m calling this new series memory disks, and it’s part of a larger series, but we have these smaller works currently that are on display… I hope everyone gets to check them out.”

“I think art is life. Life is not always sunshine and daisies and great positive things. Life has challenges in it, and I think art does as well.” Stanley remarked on what art means to her, emphasizing that where words fail art can provide an avenue for communication.

Professor Briana Miyoko Stanley will be speaking at the Boehm Gallery on Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. and her “Memory Disks” will be on display through Sept. 21.

For more information on the artist and to see more of her work, you can visit her webpage at Briana Miyoko Art.