Featured Artist Breonna Harris-Plants

Enjoy the delightful nature-inspired portfolio of printmaker Breonna Harris-Plants. Visit her website to see more of her work.

 

 

I’m a North Carolina native and printmaker. I love what I do, but to be honest, I didn’t always see art as my future. I grew up in a small farming town called Godwin, and growing up, school wasn’t easy for me. College didn’t even feel obtainable for someone with my background.

 

 

In my early twenties, I found myself feeling lost and disconnected. I had always had a deep passion for art, so with the encouragement of my partner, I decided to enroll in the Fine Arts program at Wake Technical Community College.

 

 

That decision changed everything. There, I fell deeply in love with the process, with learning, and especially with printmaking. Eventually, I made the scary but totally worthwhile decision to transfer to Meredith College to earn my Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art.

 

 

Printmaking really clicked for me, in part because of its physical and technical nature. Carving, inking, and running prints through the press all felt grounding and meditative. Early on, I found an interest in geographic forms, especially topographic maps.

 

 

My dad is a retired Special Forces veteran, and growing up, I was surrounded by his navigation tools and maps. Over time, those visual forms became a way for me to process and communicate emotion, almost like translating memories into landscapes.

 

 

I come from a family with deep roots in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, a place where geography, culture, and a sense of both closeness and distance go hand in hand. It is this complex and sometimes confusing thing that informs my art. Much of my work explores family relationships, especially the kinds of emotional terrain that exist in close-knit but complicated communities.

 

 

I use mountainous forms and other geographic shapes to represent individual people and the spaces between them: sometimes connected, sometimes isolated. At the same time, I also love making work that celebrates place, such as my North Carolina Biodiversity Series. This was a more straightforward and playful series that gave me the chance to honor my home state and its ecosystems.

 

 

Ultimately, my work is about exploring identity through land, memory, and legacy. Printmaking helps me hold those stories, both personal and shared. I hope others see echoes of their own experiences in them too.

 

Breonna Harris-Plants invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

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