Brooklin Butts is currently a Sophomore at Bandon High School. She has been selected as the recipient of the BAAA Up & Comer award for 2024. This award was created to select one of our talented students and encourage them along their artistic journey. Along with a ribbon, Brooklin will receive a year membership to BAAA, a year membership to the Coos Art Museum and a $100 gift certificate to the Art Connection.
Even though Brooklin is young I have been impressed with the reputation she has already crafted for herself within our community and I am honored to share that story with you.
I first heard of Brooklin when I was interviewing Muralist, Vicki Affatati for an article I was writing about a new mural on the Bandon Fisheries Warehouse. Vicki said she needed a conceptual drawing of the mural to present to the City of Bandon Planning Commission, and that was provided by one of her art students at the time, Brooklin Butts. I was impressed that someone so young was getting involved at the city level and gaining such great experience in creating community art installations.
Brooklin's desire to give back to the community came through the second time I came across her name. While I was walking along Old Town Bandon I came upon an amazing octopus poster in the window of Bandon's Sweets & Treats. They would be selling these "Maui Strong" posters and t-shirts, created by their 15yr old daughter Brooklin, at a local art market to support the people and animals that were displaced by the Maui fires. Brooklin would be sharing a booth with the Team Todd group that was raising funds for those battling cancer. I immediately snapped a picture and made a post on my social profile, trying to help spread the word about this amazing girl's efforts to help the victims of fire in Maui. It was after that post that I received a message from her mom, and heard the rest of her story.
"Brooklin was a huge Todd supporter as he was battling cancer.” Her mom said, “Brooklin, herself, is a cancer survivor. She had leukemia at 3 years old and did 3.5 years of chemotherapy. Our community was amazing and supported our family through so much. So Brooklin does her best to find ways to give back to those in need. We are so proud of her and what she accomplishes!" Her experience in the hospital is actually where Brooklin says she found a love of art and realized it could help others. “When I was young and in the hospital, I had lots of free time and art was fun. I had the chance to make lots of different things to share with other kids who weren’t feeling well.” Knowing she’s using her art to help others, she says, “it makes me feel really good. It comes kinda easy, so why wouldn’t I use it to help others. Seems like the right thing to do!”
Brooklin's Art teacher, Vicki Affatati, made the following comment "Every once in a while, I meet a young artist who is driven to create and has the combination of natural talent advanced by their focused art practice. It's one thing to dream of being an artist and another thing to work at it. Brooklin Butts demonstrates the qualities of an unstoppable artist.”
As we all know every artistic journey is varied and filled with many twists and turns, but at this point, Brooklin plans to pursue her artistic dreams through travel. “I’d like to travel the world and see all the different types of art that’s out there. Maybe I could leave a little bit of myself everywhere I go.”
Congratulations Brooklin, we wish you every success in the future!