Department of Visual Arts

BYU Alumnus Returns to Teach Aspiring Artists

by Daniel Ng

If you were to ask a Brigham Young University graduate where they hoped their careers might take them, you would probably get a variety of extravagant answers of destinations across the globe.

But on certain occasions a graduate’s career path somehow winds its way back to campus where it all began.

For Brant Vest, an adjunct/visiting professor in the studio arts program of the Department of Visual Arts who graduated with his BFA from the “Y” in 2003, his path took a quicker turn back to BYU than he may have expected.

After graduation, Vest displayed his artwork in various galleries before deciding to obtain a graduate degree from the San Francisco Art Institute.

With his MFA in hand, Vest realized he wanted to venture into teaching somewhere. The problem was figuring out where that somewhere would take him.

“I was having a hard time in the Bay Area trying to find somewhere to go,” Vest said. “I couldn’t find anything that was both a good fit and open.”

Finally, Vest was given the opportunity to take a temporary teaching position ─ a position which landed him right back in Provo as a visiting professor.

“When this came along, it just seemed like a good fit,” Vest said. “It’s been a very different but also good opportunity for me.”

Now Vest, who was raised in Payson, is back in the Jesse Knight Building where he teaches several 2-D design and drawing classes to students not much younger than him.

Vest said it’s been somewhat strange in his flip-flopped role but knows that his studies as an undergraduate have given him the groundwork to succeed in his current role as a mentor and teacher.

“I realized in a lecture I gave that I was speaking to professors I was listening to not that long ago,” Vest said. “In a way, it feels like I’ve come full circle. But I think [undergraduate studies] was a good base, a good structure for what I am doing now.”

Along with realizing how his studies at BYU have helped him to become a successful professor at the school, Vest also noted that the culture and Spirit on campus has been a refreshing comfort for him.

“One of the things I really missed while I was in the Bay Area was the influence of the Spirit here and how that is mixed in with the way we teach,” Vest said. “There is just a different way that students learn here. It’s hard to describe the contrast, but there is definitely a big contrast between the two. There is even a contrast in the way students arrive to class, how their mental state is and what they are looking forward to as they come to class. Students here are just more responsible and consistent.”

Vest was recently able to witness that responsibility and consistency as he took the time to visit and critique several artworks created by the students due to his quasi “visiting” teacher status.

“Everyone I spoke to was really sharp and they all had great ideas and were working hard,” Vest said. “They had a lot of output which is really good. It was just a privilege to go around and visit with them about what they were doing.”

The students also found it a privilege to be critiqued by someone who recently graduated from BYU ─ someone who understood the culture and ideas behind their work with a few quick glances.

“He just looked around and immediately he linked all the connections in my art that other guest artists hadn’t been able to,” said Tiana Birrell, a studio art major whose emphasis is in drawing and painting. “It was really cool. I feel like we connected immediately.”

Birrell, who is currently working on the concept of home in her work, believes part of that connection she had with Vest comes from their backgrounds in the LDS Church and the understanding that families are essential to the gospel plan.

“When you have that religious similarity, you have a different understanding,” Birrell said.

Birrell’s fellow studio art major, Heather Robinson, agreed that it was special to have someone look at her work who truly understood what she was trying to express.

“It’s really good that the department brings in people that aren’t from our culture. But for example, for one of our guest artists from New York it was hard for her to understand what I was going for,” Robinson said. “But with Brant, he’s from this culture but he’s also been outside of it. So he really understood me well and gave some good, informed advice.”

Ultimately, Vest does not know how long he will be sticking around BYU before he moves on to a new chapter in his career. But for now, he knows that he can be a vital source of help for students through the combination of his knowledge, talent and ability to relate with what they are going through.

“I was just on the other side of the fence a couple years ago,” Vest said. “Hopefully being this fresh, I have a little bit more relevancy to the students.”