For most college students, co-creating and launching an international art project is nothing but a dream. For psychology and art junior Brittany Basco, it’s just one of her several endeavors.
She has a broad range of interests: powerlifting, art, photography, creative writing, aerial silks, acro yoga, singing, playing various instruments and Pi Beta Phi sorority. Basco is also employed as a photographer at LEGACY Magazine.
She incorporates all of her passions into her creative ventures.
Basco met her project partner, Chris Pemberton, via Instagram in July 2015. She followed his own creative project, “Humans for the Future,” and several conversations later the two realized their mutual visions aligned.
Through Skype sessions, the duo formed the foundation of their project, “Creative Mirror.” Over winter break, Basco and Pemberton met in Mexico to make their plans of collaboration a reality.
The process entails having two people, primarily family members, each designing one side of a random object. After completion, the two halves are compared. The project is a creative experiment to see how each individual’s mind is different and interprets the image.
“The moment the results are combined is amazing,” Basco said.
Basco said the goal of the project is to connect creativity in places where it is not thought to be. She aims to showcase the many elements and opportunities available with a wide spectrum of creativity.
Basco believes that everyone is creative, especially people who have faced challenges in life that result in self-expression as a form of therapy.
“You’re thrown a curveball and you have to learn how to catch it,” she said.
For Basco, creativity is necessary to survive. She maintains her positive outlook by affirming and visualizing what she wants to happen, rather than limiting herself.
The artist enjoys an active lifestyle, playing other sports including softball, soccer and pole vaulting. Her love for acro yoga began as the by product of an injury, and she found yoga impacted her healing process.
Basco says it’s all about the experience and always learning something.
“Failures are an opportunity to create more or to make something out of it,” she said.
“Everything that has altered me has made me go further.”
Basco never thought she could do anything acrobatic until she found aerial silks last year through her previous employment with DIG Magazine. Aerial silks is a leisure course offered at the University.
“Silks brought together everything,” she said. “Through silks, you find your weaknesses and can improve on them.”
Among Basco’s other commitments, she is a member of the LSU Powerlifting club. She competed at a national level during the summer of 2015 and qualified for the powerlifting nationals in April. Basco was also recently invited to compete at the IPF World Bench Press Championships for the U.S. World Bench Team.
Basco has numerous creative outlets and enjoys thriving in all of them. Her other photography project, “The Body and Mind” captures the human body in its purest form.
Basco is attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland this summer with LSU’s Academic Programs Abroad. Edinburgh is known as the biggest art festival in the world, and Basco is planning on collecting more samples for “Creative Mirror.”
Basco plans to attend graduate school to eventually study art therapy and plans on using “Creative Mirror” for research as part of her thesis.
Basco said ideally she and Pemberton want 100 pieces to form the exhibition, which has already been confirmed to show the U.S., New Zealand, and possibly Australia. Basco said the project should be ready for exhibition in six to seven months.
Anyone can submit their work, regardless of skill level. The entry fee is $20, for the materials needed to complete the project.
Basco’s work with “Creative Mirror” and “The Body and Mind” can be viewed at @brithephotographer and @strippedsoul on Instagram.

Gallery • 9 Photos

Greta Jines

LSU art and psychology junior Brittany Basco participates in a variety of activities and has recently launched an international art project called "Creative Mirror."