Explore Brian's work: IG: byunbaej
[Watch the full interview below]
For Brian Feretic, creativity has taken many forms. From drawing and graffiti as a kid, to neuroscience, building a plant marketplace, and eventually developing a resin art practice inspired by the natural world, his path has never been entirely linear.
Today, Brian brings together his interests in surfing, climbing, plants, science, and the outdoors through resin pieces made with natural materials he forages himself. But his creative practice extends beyond making art. He has built community events, workshops, and new ways for people to experience and participate in art.
In our conversation, Brian talks about rediscovering his creativity, learning through experimentation, building a business around his art, and the importance of making work that still feels like your own.
When did your creative journey begin?
BF: So, this might sound like a little cliché, but I think I've always been a creative person. I was drawing as a kid. I got into, we'll call it letter art, but sort of graffiti back in New York, in high school and stuff. College, I dabbled.
And then I took a long break because I was a scientist. I went full in into neuroscience, and that's the reason I moved out here, for grad school. It kind of crushed my creativity, I think, because it was so rigid. So many research articles I had to read, and eventually I wrote my own and published.
But then once I left science, I started this company, Blossom, which is a community marketplace platform for plant people. I worked on that for almost five years. The creativity started flowing back again because we were just two guys creating this company and we had no budget. So it's like, how do you build awareness? How do you get people to download? I just had to be kind of creative and figure out all these guerrilla marketing tactics to get people on board.
During that time, right when I started, I was getting into resin art, which has been my focus for about seven- eight years now.
And it started with this redwood table that I actually have in the garage right now. A buddy gave me a redwood slab. Beautiful redwood slab. I spent Thanksgiving with my buddy Ze and his family, and he had this untouched slab in the backyard. I was like, “Hey Mike, what are you going to do with that?” And he's like, “Nothing.” He's like, “You want it?”
And I was like, “Yeah, I'll take it.” We drove it back to OB and I planed it, routed it, and sanded it down. But then I saw these saw marks in it. I was like, “Oh, maybe I can fill it with resin.” I always kind of was interested in that. So I just went to Home Depot, got the epoxy resin table stuff, and I just started kind of filling in gaps.
Then I started putting seashells and stuff in there, and eventually plants and leaves and all this stuff I would collect on the beach after surfing. But the cool thing about the table is that you can see my whole resin journey. All the mistakes I made and when I corrected them. You can see the evolution, how it went from simple to really complex, like little worlds, where I had so much stuff in there. So it's kind of cool. It's like my tangible resin lessons preserved.
And then from there, I was just kind of fascinated by the amount of applications that resin has. I was like, “Whoa. I like this medium. I think this would be something that can kind of aggregate all my interests and passions together.”
You've done a lot of community events. What made you want to bring art into the communities you're already part of?
BF: It probably started with Blossom. Since we didn't have any marketing or advertising budget, I would host these plant swap events in key areas to try to bring community members together, centered around a passion, like horticulture, house plants, just having green beauty in their home.
I've done a bunch in OB. I've been here like 15 years. This is my community. I realized I was good at organizing them. I was good at getting key people involved, and I was also proficient at getting people excited for these things. And I think I'm pretty organized and I can coordinate these big things with many layers of people.
And so I was like, “Oh, let me apply that tactic to my art stuff and give other people that might not be thinking like that a chance.” All my events are free for artists. I don't charge commissions. I do it because I love bringing people together.
For example, this recent one at the climbing gym, just a couple days ago at Mesa Rim, the funny thing is, most of the time people in the climbing gym, in this environment, this atmosphere, people just talk about climbing. You just know each other as climbers. You talk about problems you're working on, your climbing projects, your trips, all that. So it's very one dimensional. But then maybe you go on a camping climbing trip with people or you see them outside the gym and you quickly realize, “Oh, wow, there's more to you than just climbing.”
A lot of climbing people didn't even know all these other things about me, that I was a scientist, that I was a startup guy, that I surf and I play classical music. And they're like, “Dude, what?” They were especially surprised, like, “Oh, you make art too?”
So I was like, this has been a community of mine for a long time. I want to show them my creative side, and I know there's other people like me that would love to have this opportunity. Let's bring in other people as well.
We had 12 people join. One was my girlfriend, who's also a climber and artist. She joined and then we had to cap it off at like 13, but there were still people after that who saw me posting about it and they were like, “Oh, when can you fit me in?”
The demand was overwhelming and it was just such a fun event, seeing people show a side of them that other people might have never seen before. And I just personally love seeing other people's art and trying to organize art swaps. I've done this a few times in different venues. I sold two pieces. I know other people sold stuff. So it's just such a feel good event, not only for the business or the venue. They're doing a community thing. Usually I'll bring in outside people that normally wouldn't be at a venue.
People sold stuff, people just had a good time. A bunch of us left notes at our booth and just went climbing for a bit. They're just such a fun way to connect with people and help other people connect with each other. And I think that is probably the main driver behind my desire to coordinate these bigger scale events.
If another artist wanted to organize an event of their own, how would you suggest they get started?
BF: I think a good starting point would be with communities are you currently involved with and tapped into, and focus on hubs where your community likes to hang out.
I did one early this year in Bishop. I go there for climbing also a lot, but we did it at the main coffee shop up there, Black Sheep Coffee Roasters. That's a hub. Whenever I'm up there, I stop in there and I run into friends and I'm like, “This would be a great place.”
So then I just reach out to the Instagram account, or I'll just go in there and ask them, “Hey, I'm interested in hosting an art show here. Bringing people in from the community too. Are you guys down?” And I'll handle all the coordination. I usually make a bunch of promotional materials. I'll make the flyer, I'll do all the copy and content for an email blast.
I have experience doing that, so I want to make it as easy as possible for them to want to host it. I'm like, really, all you have to do is provide me with the venue and I'll do the rest.So it's like an easy selling thing.
You've done a lot of different things. What motivates you?
BF: I think what's driving all these, or what's driving me and how I can have such diverse things, is when whatever I'm creating is providing value, and especially having a positive impact on other people.
Blossom is scalable with technology and tens of thousands, probably more like in the hundreds of thousands. Science was like, “Oh, I want to learn about different diseases,” or just curious about the brain and biology and how can that help people to maybe eventually formulate cures and things like that.
With the art one, it's therapeutic for me and I just love creating. It's bringing all my worlds together, like my surf world, my climbing world. All my material is all natural. And it's like I'm finding myself, I just forage for stuff after surfing this morning at the OB pier. My tub's filled with shells and kelp right now. But when I make pieces, every single person just gets so happy. And they like, freaking out, ecstatic.
I've done probably 15 wedding bouquets. Those just feel great. People just like, I transform their bouquet and I do their bouquets in the style of my art. I don't really see anyone doing that. Just such an insane reception of stoke and excitement. I'm like, “Wow, I created something that would make someone that excited and feel that way.”
How are you creating different sources of income through your artwork?
BF: Yeah. I'm keeping it focused within the art domain. I don't want to spread myself too thin.
The workshops I've done quite a few, and also at other bigger institutions, like I did one at Trilogy Sanctuary not too long ago. But the workshops were born from my art nights. So I would just have friends over and one person would provide a medium and kind of just, you know, it's not like a formal workshop. It's more like, hey, essentially it's like get friends together to create. Because a lot of people think they're not creative. Like, “Oh, I can't do that.” I'm like, “No, no, no. You're human. You can do it.” But you might have just not the right environment or atmosphere or safe place to express that part of you. So art nights are for that.
A lot of them I would lead, so I'd be spearheading most of them, and I would do a resin pendant one, I would do a wire sculpture one. I'm into pyrography, like wood burning, a bunch of mediums.So these art nights were just to get people to have fun making art.
And then I was like, “Oh, this would be a good thing to do as a part of this art path.” And to be honest, it's not really a big money generator for me, but it brings other people in and gets people excited.
I just enjoy making art with new people and broadening my money, but it's also exposure and marketing. And I have a very large spread of stuff I make. I make small pieces that I'll sell for as low as 40 bucks. I make mid range stuff, 100, 200, 300. And then I have another tier, you could say, stuff that's like 600, 800, maybe even 1,000.
And then I have my few big statement pieces that they're going to be thousands. I'm not going to sell it for less, otherwise I'll just keep it. But I know there's buyers out there that would buy it for their price. I just haven't found them yet.
So that's why I systematically have been using the farmers markets and the workshops and things to kind of test markets, to see the reception of my stuff. So that was key for me, to have a large spread of work that has different price points.
How have you approached the wedding bouquet side of your work?
BF: I have the wedding bouquets, and I preserve really any bouquet, any floral stuff. And I wanted to lean into that more this year, but it's not like my passion. But when I give it to them, it's like an added challenge. It's like, make something cool that's in the style of your own art with the set bouquet, and enough to personalize it for them and get them really stoked.
So it's like a little more challenge and I have to think more in a box, but then when it comes together, I'm like, “Oh man, this is sick. They're going to freak out.” And I always update them before I preserve, and every single person's just like, once again, freaking out.
And I'm like, “Wow, that feels good for me.” They're so stoked. Those are more money. Those are like I've done as low as 300, but usually they're like 500 to 700. So those keep me afloat while I keep grinding and hustling for my own art.
When did you realize that art was more than a hobby to you?
BF: When I mentally committed to it and I was like, “I'm going to see if I can support myself and see how deep I can go into this realm as a business and a passion.” That's when I was like, it's no longer a hobby.
You know, I got into a couple fine art galleries, juried shows, and that was super validating. I got accepted into Leucadia Art Walk, which was a big deal to me. That's a pretty big show and I think it's highly competitive. So yeah, it was that shift. And once money gets involved, things change.
But I always told myself if I start making my art just to make money or just what people buy, then my art has been compromised and I'm going to stop. You know, maybe like except for one person. She wanted it a very specific way and I did not enjoy that, but she was still stoked.
Everybody else has just seen my stuff now and they're like, “I trust you.” So I guess my selling process is solid and I'm confident going in. I'm like, listen, I'm going to make you something personal and beautiful and it's going to be epic and I guarantee that. And not one person has been disappointed.
But if it gets to a point where I'm just like a pair of hands resining stuff, or if it doesn't feel like it's my art, then I'm going to stop. So that's always in the back of my mind. I haven't really felt that yet. I'm still just making stuff that I love to create for myself and people love it just as much.
Key Insights
Your creative path doesn't have to be linear
Brian's career has moved through art, neuroscience, entrepreneurship, plants, surfing, climbing, and eventually resin. At first glance, those things might seem disconnected. But his creative practice has ultimately become a place where all of them can exist together. His story shows that the things you explore along the way aren't necessarily distractions from your creative career. They can become part of what makes your work uniquely yours.
Community can be part of your creative practice
Brian's art events aren't simply about selling work. They're about giving people an opportunity to show another side of themselves. His climbing event came from recognizing that people can know each other through one shared interest without ever seeing everything else that makes up that person. Art became a way to change that.
His approach also shows that artists don't always have to wait for galleries or traditional institutions to create opportunities. You can look at the communities you're already part of, identify the places where those people gather, and create something yourself.
Build different income streams without losing focus
Brian has created several ways for his art to support him: original pieces, workshops, markets, events, and floral preservation. But there's an important distinction in how he approaches it. He doesn't want to spread himself across everything.
He's keeping those opportunities within the art domain while using different price points and formats to reach different audiences. His approach is less about finding one perfect way to make money from art and more about building a structure that gives his creative practice room to continue.
Protect what makes the work yours
Perhaps the most important lesson from Brian's story is his willingness to walk away if the work stops feeling like his. He knows that making art professionally means considering what people will buy. But he also knows where his line is.
That balance is difficult, especially when your creative work becomes your income. But Brian's approach shows that pursuing art as a career doesn't have to mean sacrificing the reason you started making art in the first place. The goal isn't simply to make money from the work. It's to build a life where you can continue making work that means something to you.
📢 Check Out the Full Interview
Watch the full interview with Brian below or youtube @ainahcommunity
Explore Ed's work: IG: byunbaej
