Bryan Deese
Murals, Canvas (Mixed Media)
Bryan Deese grew up in Nashville and was first impacted by large-scale art on a field trip to the Tennessee State Museum . The specific exhibit, a Red Grooms retrospective, was full of sculpture and murals, all larger than life. Later on while attending Hillsboro High School, Deese discovered graffiti art. It had all the same aspects that made an impact on him earlier — it was big, colorful, based around typography, and always came with some adventure. Inspired by graffiti, Deese learned how to paint big and fast... and somewhere along the way, it turned into murals.
Deese studied graphic design at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and worked professionally as a designer for years before the murals took on a life of their own. Today, he most enjoys painting large-scale portraits using the same techniques and spray paint he used in his youth. He often likes to showcase the history specific to the location he is painting and believes that telling a local history through art elevates that history and tells the community, "You are important."
If you've ever visited Public Square or driven past Chubb's Smokehouse, you can't have missed Bryan's work - he is the artist behind the large canvas installation on the wall in the lobby space where Black Press is located, the painter who brought to life the image of Gallatin train conductor TJ Cato, and the creator who gave us the mural of Eddie Sherlin and Bill Ligon.
Bryan’s studio, which recently opened here in Gallatin, is located on Witherspoon Avenue, and it is there that he can often be found creating.