There’s magic in making patterns or rhythms—it’s what we respond to in music, it’s what makes plants grow, it’s why the colorful aisles of the grocery store are my own special brand of therapy. Brad Birchett seeks out these rhythms and sinks himself into them, making art along the way; something very circular, nonlinear and natural happens in that process. His work might be the visual fruit he creates after a walk through town, or it might be the walk itself. Where is the dividing line between art and daily life? Too much crossover exists in Brad’s world to de.ne what’s what: take, for example, a year-long project he did with his rescued shepherd, Luka.Instead of seeing Luka’s need for tons of exercise and companionship as a distraction from his work, Brad found art in it, documenting the physical patterns Luka made when retrieving sticks, recordingthe sounds of their time together, noting the aural similarities between the days (time of day when the birds started chirping, Luka’s breathing habits, ambient sounds). Forty of the recordings were then mixed on top of each other to create a 15-minute environmental sound piece. That, to me, is what art is really all about.

Brad’s about to teach an honors module on Earth Art (think Richard Long, Robert Smithson) at VCU, where he’s an AFO advisor. It’s going to be a heck of a class: Lucy Lippard’s Overlay is the required reading, there will be a guest lecture on “environmental intervention,” and in keeping with his atypical approach, there will be no tests—only learning, .nding, interacting. “My last professor really allowed us to learn, rather than forcing things on us… he was a great teacher. He taught me that my strength is waiting for things to present themselves to me.” He’s certainly got patience. There are cairns built from Rappahannock County creek stones in his studio—stones that he collected one at a time, from di.erent locations, and that he plans to return to the creek—to delineate the time-line of those winding pilgrimages.

Painting is the medium for his current project, Urban Renewal, featuring (soon-to-be) seventy-two 7” x 5” pieces inspired by alley exploration in Woodland Heights. The groupings of 24 dark, but very much alive, little works emanate that sense of movement, pattern and meaning that orbits Brad’s daily activities. “These pieces were cut from the saved yet un-restorable paintings on paper left from the .re—re-painted with new and current ideas, formal elements, repetitive motion, and with an overall sense of social equality.” He also recently curated a show featuring work very di. erent from his, the Buckets of Water show at Red Door (up until the 26th), an all-female collection subtitled “New Southern Female Gothic.”

Check him out. He keeps his blog updated—bradbirchettart.blogspot.com—and he’s showing work at Woodberry Forest over the months of January and February.