Winston Braun
Featured Cover Artist for Winter 2024When Winston Braun slid into VORTEX’s DMs, I felt a flicker of recognition, but it wasn’t until snooping out photos of one of his old art openings, dotted with familiar faces from a decade past, that it all clicked. Now, there was a name I hadn’t heard in years, not since those first four spent in this Valley, where our paths had briefly crossed. The vortex strikes again.
UNTITLED, 2023
Braun’s an Oak Grove kid. His formative years, shaped by the holistic educational philosophy of the school, are reflected in his artwork. The school’s emphasis on inquiry, creativity, connection with nature, and the vibrant community around it has left a lasting impact on his creative expression. “My time at Oak Grove influenced me as an artist, even if I maybe didn’t realize it at the time,” he muses. Describing his time in Christy Sylvester’s art class as “dicking around,” Braun inadvertently taps into the very essence of artistic freedom and exploration — crucial fodder for any budding artist.
High school saw Braun dabbling in zine creation, lured by its DIY charm and the allure of crafting something you can actually touch. “This was at the beginnings of early social media, when people had LiveJournals and DeviantArt accounts, and I think I made them so I could make my friends laugh and share this secret little inside world that only existed within the pages of my zines. They were all silly one-off things, goofy drawings, and collages that I’m sure would be painful to revisit but, thankfully, are lost forever.”
As social media and the internet grew increasingly integral to daily life, Braun adapted, setting aside zine creation for a time. Only recently has he revisited this medium.
“Ironically, it is because of the oversaturation of and access to media that I’ve started making [zines] again, a way to collect and organize the piles of photos and drawings I have and create a tangible, shareable object.”
The work on one of his recent zines, Bonk #1, rides through his bicycling escapades — a stripped-down, authentic journey across its pages. It is raw and honest, capturing the essence of freedom found on two wheels, with the rugged landscapes of his adventures serving as a backdrop. This passion for cycling, deeply rooted in Braun’s personal and professional life, is an integral thread in the fabric of his artistic identity.
Braun’s fascination with illustration and cartoons dates back to his childhood, yet he initially steered away from these interests to pursue what he deemed “serious” art and degrees in Anthropology and Museum Studies from UC Santa Barbara. It was not until his late twenties or early thirties that he began to discard the notion of what an “artist” should be, choosing instead to create freely. This shift allowed him to embrace illustration fully and to start crafting the work he truly desired, moving away from the constraints of expectations. Braun eventually found his vibe in Ventura, spending a stint at the Famous Bell Arts Factory in Ventura.
As a diehard cyclist since his teen years, taking a shop lead position at BikeVentura was a no-brainer. There, he fine-tuned his knack for leadership and wove stronger community threads, all in the name of sustainability and unity via the humble bicycle. Although Braun has since moved on from BikeVentura, the organization left a lasting impression, especially its Oxnard outpost — a thriving hub for fixie enthusiasts which has sadly closed. Nevertheless, Braun’s connection to the cycling community remained unbroken. He continued to engage with a handful of young cyclists, guiding them through the broader universe of cycling culture. This shift marked Braun’s rekindled interest in zine-making and photography, offering him a unique avenue to document and highlight the Oxnard fixie scene.
“I also wanted to see what it’s like to grow up these days in Oxnard and contrast that to my time growing up in Ojai. It’s still an ongoing project; I’ve been taking photos and have given [the kids] cameras to play with,” Braun shares, eager to juxtapose these generational narratives.
Braun's piece, House Sitting (Clover’s Lament), is a clever nod to those big fireworks displays we see on the Fourth of July. It's like he's tuned into the tension between a good show and how it rattles our four-legged friends.
follow him! @rev.dirt_pile
What’s Cookin’ is a domestic scene turned on its head, it reminded me of the hours-long fight over an Ojai resident’s electric appliances in front of City Council. Braun adapted this piece for the VORTEX Winter 2024 cover.
Freedom (is an open field) presents an intriguing yet simple scene of a lawnmower and an overgrown yard. The chain link fence in the foreground serves as a literal and metaphorical boundary, inviting the viewer to ponder the contrast between the contained and the free, the cultivated and the wild.
Winston Braun’s story is continuous growth, a vibrant blend of personal and professional evolution. Born and raised in Ojai, schooled in Santa Barbara, and now creating in Ventura, he is an artist of illustration and photography and life itself. Each work and each project is a verse in a more significant poem he crafts about the human experience, rooted deeply in the soil of community and sprouting towards the sun of broader recognition. Now, as he looks for new opportunities, Braun carries a portfolio of diverse and arresting work and a philosophy of life that transcends the boundary of pages. VORTEX is grateful for his contribution.
Cover: Self-portrait with bird, 2023
