Dear Seekers is Sasha Xiao’s attempt to document and celebrate this messy and perpetual journey of becoming and returning to ourselves, one conversation at a time. If you love it, please consider sharing it with others. Here’s my About page. Any questions or feedback, you can directly hit reply to this email.
Hi friend,
How’s your weekend going?
Today, I’m joined by Germany-born, Toronto-based Jeanine Brito, who I first connected with through Instagram many years ago when she was still working on Sophomore, a magazine that she created in her early twenties with a group of good friends.
Even though Jeanine had been working as a designer in a various of companies over the years- from an interactive designer in a tech start-up, to a graphic designer at Umbra, and eventually to the creative lead at Global Mail’s Content Studio, I always knew there was an artist in her.
To be fair, I’m sure she knew that too.
But it wasn’t until the pandemic that Jeanine finally re-connected with her inner artist and was able to put more attention on her artistic practice and pursuit. For many artists in any discipline, finding their voices and artistic vocabulary might take years. But for Jeanine, it took one pandemic. Being forced to stay in a confined space, in a way, has evoked an if-not-now-then-when moment. With some very clear signs and guidances from the universe, Jeanine recently took a leap of faith to take her art practice full-time.
Whimsical.
Dreamlike.
Theatrical.
Ultra-feminine.
Beautiful with a twist…
These usually are the words used to describe Jeanine’s paintings, but if you know her, they would also be very appropriate to describe her sense of style as well.
Jeanine’s paintings are always there to catch a glimpse of whimsy, what comes out the other end are Jeanine’s desire to preserve her past memories and feelings, as well as her pursuit to better understand herself.
Thank you for joining me today.
Chat soon,
Sasha
Pod Conversation with Jeanine Brito