We live in a culture that is going nowhere, quickly. Motion has been confused with progress. The lack of patience that I see for the mundane and the slow concerns me. In contrast to this contemporary condition, the commonplace and the tedious are constant themes in my work. They run through each piece and together the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

My contention is that the amazing and fantastic lie inside a humble 2x4 or an unremarkable bucket of screws, not in the ceaseless seeking of novelty in the dimensionless void of digital space. Neither does it lie in the concepts we use to justify the value of our experiences, after we’ve had them.

The fastest way to gain access to these otherwise unseen attributes of the world as such is to, counterintuitively, reduce the speed of our expectations as they relate to the materials that surround us, and hone our skills of attention so that we can see more than is ostensibly present.

In truth, the capacity to see what is plainly available in everyday experience is a skill that we are losing.

This is my responsibility as an artist: to show us ways to get it back.

My work investigates the direct, experiential nature of our material existence and the validity of our subsequent conceptualizations about that material existence. My primary interests are the phenomenology of materials themselves, the physical structures in our built environment, the cultural structures that interact with them, and the related agency of humans in relationship to these interlocked systems. Themes running through much of my work encompass investigations of fixed and transient viewpoints, various types of division and continuity, and the intersection of art and the utilitarian object.

Brandon Eugene Secrest is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in San Diego California.

Brandon holds an MFA in Art (Applied Design emphasis) from San Diego State University, a dual BFA in Sculpture and Expanded Media (SEM) and Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and a BS in English from the United States Naval Academy. While living in Cleveland he also studied cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University.

He is the founder of The Cartesian Theater , a transient gallery/exhibition space in operation since 2020

He is also the founder of Full Studio, an art/design consultancy

Curriculum Vitae