Briah Gober: Finding That Creative Spark
Briah Gober shares her thoughts on finding inspiration and how her art career in Chattanooga has developed.
Local artist Briah Gober recently had the opportunity to collaborate with a friend, Alecia Vera, on a mural painting at the Kinley Hotel. While this beautiful mural brought them local acclaim, Briah has long been an artist at heart and a growing presence in the Chattanooga art scene.
Briah was creative from a young age and enjoyed expressing herself through writing and painting. She found herself drawn to colors of all kinds, particularly brighter hues.
“I don’t actually have a favorite color,” Briah said. “I think they all have their place in which they are beautiful.”
Throughout her childhood, she continued her artistic expression and found inspiration in what she remembers her mother described as her “out-there” view.
“Inspiration with me is so broad,” Briah said. “Inspiration starts with my struggles, my downfalls, and my mistakes.”
For Briah, art serves as a source of meditation and coping with life’s inevitable twists and turns. When in search of a creative spark, she finds herself inspired by the simplicity of the “color of the walls in the room” or the color of someone’s shirt. This love for color began when she was young and experimented with finger painting and paint pouring, attracted to the fluid or opaque look the techniques created. This led to adopting an abstract style that she continues to use to this day. Although she feels that abstract is “a commodity in a way nowadays,” she finds that it is the best way for her to express herself and “empathize with other artists” utilizing a similar style.
A major part of Briah’s message through her art is the idea of intoxication rebranded in a positive light. Rather than the word’s connotation of overindulgence or escapism, Briah likes to involve the “lovely intoxication” of the simple beauties in life, self-love, and expression in her art.
“I also just want people to be themselves,” Briah said. “Trust in themselves. Love themselves.”
While studying marketing at UTC, Briah has become incredibly involved in the local art scene. She has displayed her pieces at local spaces like Stone Cup Cafe and Virgola Oyster and Bar and has performed live paintings at Barking Legs Theater and The Spot. She has also recently partnered with 3 Bridges to create clothing with her art.
While she has already established herself as an increasingly prevalent artist here in Chattanooga, Briah hopes that after graduation she can devote herself fully to even more fantastic projects and create a lasting, professional art career. In the meantime, she has been working on expanding her capabilities by playing with different styles and experimenting with creating her own clothing, vinyl-cutting stickers, and using wax in encaustic painting.
“I am completely and utterly in love with art, and I just want to expand on all my mediums,” Briah said.
Be sure to check out both Briah’s main Instagram, @lovelyintoxication, as well as her new account devoted to polaroids, @insanityoverd!