Below is an article that ran in the Bedford/Southender by Michelle Brunet, with a photo of Brandt in the pottery room at Swoon.
Here is the link to the original article on their website, and we've copied/pasted it in below!
Getting to Know Brandt Eisner, Owner of Swoon – Fine Art & Antiques
Brandt Eisner
The nine-room Victorian farmhouse at 1410 Hammonds Plains Road was converted into Swoon – Fine Art & Antiques almost two years ago. The commercial gallery showcases works of every media imaginable from local and maritime artists, as well as antiques and fashion. The pieces are superbly arranged in each of the home’s vibrant spaces and each month promises visitors a fresh visual experience. Before becoming the owner of Swoon, artist Brandt Eisner worked with mentally challenged adults, served as Assistant Director at Argyle Fine Art and even ran his own business, beginning at age of 18! Bedford Magazine had the pleasure to chat with the passionate curator.
Q: What inspired you to open Swoon?
BE: I felt that working in a gallery was what I loved doing. I love working with artists, representing and promoting them. I went to a friend, Susan Paczek, and told her I felt I should be opening my own space. She said she had some money to get me started. From that moment on, everything that we needed showed up. It was the universe just kind of saying, I’ll give you what you need and you take it and go with it. To this day, it’s always a struggle, but we just hang on and when we need it, it shows up. There is definitely a group of people that help make this happen. I don’t have any employees but I have so many amazing volunteers. Susan gallery sits for me, helps with the bookkeeping and with the social media.
Q: Tell us about your first business.
BE: For five years, while I was in school, I apprenticed under a horticulturalist and landscape designer. When I graduated from high school, I opened my own business at my parent’s property in Chester Basin (Mum n Sun Garden Gallery). That was like floral design, greenhouse landscaping, but also art, craft, antiques and all of the other things that I loved. I did that for five years.
Q: What are your earliest creative experiences?
BE: My grandmother taught herself the basics of floral design. So I started really young doing that and landscaping. By high school I was doing weddings and competing against professionals and winning. I started experimenting by taking found objects and applying the elements of floral design, what I later found out was called assemblage. I had a few artists around me that encouraged me to keep going. Next thing, I was showing in art shows.
Q: How would you describe your own art?
BE: My work has always been deeply personal and yet presents a general, larger social context. I try to work in a way that allows people to bring their own personal history to the work. A lot of it has to do with why we have insecurities and why we hold them so close to our heart. It’s usually in an ironic way and I also try to incorporate a lot of humour because it may be heavy subject matter, but if we take it too seriously, we’re really only bogging ourselves down. The last series [of paintings] I worked on was called Happy Hour. I was sort of dealing with all these issues around the party scene and what that meant to me and also what that whole scene means in context to the gay experience. I was looking at what that had to say about my identity. I created these works where my head was on an olive pick. People had these strong but positive reactions to it. That’s just an example of how my work is connected to what I happen to be figuring out at that moment in time.
Q: How do you set up each room in the gallery so beautifully?
BE: It’s not really something I can take credit for. I always tell people that I was born with this really crazy thing about aesthetics. As a child, I always collected things. More so than playing with them, I displayed them. It’s a strange gift. I’m very grateful.
Q: Tell us about Swoon’s monthly art shows.
BE: The last one [in August] was the Open Air show. There were 31 artists in the show. This month’s show is featuring two artists. Geoffrey Grantham’s show will be all about the Purcell’s Cove area and the changes there. The wilderness is quickly disappearing and he is trying to capture that. Also, with the wildfires that have happened in the last few years, he’s been able to go in after and document the landscape as it recovers. So you get this beautiful, haunting imagery. The other artist is A.D. Tinkham who does skyscapes – these absolutely beautiful, ephemeral, emotional pieces.
Q: Who has been most encouraging in your life?
BE: There have been so many people along the way. It’s like at every stage of your life somebody shows up to be that person. With Swoon, I think Susan has been such a key player. When things are tough, she is always encouraging. Also, I think it’s the daily clients that come in. There’s nothing better than to have people walk into a space and hear them gasp. It’s such a surprise for them. It’s not your typical gallery. For them to leave saying my day is better for being here, that really keeps me going.
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