Meet Brandi & Malia Smart & Rifkin | Artist / Tattooer – Empire Arts Gallery

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandi & Malia Smart & Rifkin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandi & Malia, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
BRANDI SMART: I’ve been producing art in one form or another as long as I can remember – Malia too. As kids we sort of just fell in love with art being inspired by the natural beauty of our environments – me in Florida, and Malia bouncing between California and Hawaii. Malia was selling designs at 10 to her dad’s surfing friends, I was focusing on art as early as elementary school.

MALIA RIFKIN: My mom is an artist who worked a ton of local art festivals and street fairs growing up, so I was exposed at an early age to artist culture and how to use those skills to create works of art. Eventually, I was drawing pictures and flyers for friends which led me to eventually pursue a degree in graphic design. Once I graduated and realized how insanely competitive the job market was, I followed the advice of a friend and set up a meeting at a local tattoo shop to talk about an apprenticeship. Armed with a graphic design degree and a sharp, wide ranging portfolio spanning several mediums, they hired me on the spot and I began my apprenticeship two days later.

BRANDI: When I finally had my own transportation as a teen, I was taking in a lot of live music and naturally tattoos went with the counterculture types I met at those events. I got chased out of a lot of shops at 16 trying to get an apprenticeship – that wasn’t working out, and honestly I don’t think any shop in my tiny port town was ready for a girl apprentice. I decided to hone my skills by going to art school, and I don’t regret it. Beginning a tattoo career in the traditional way is not an easy task, but I hustled hard and having a degree in fine arts was extremely helpful in finally earning that long sought-after apprenticeship. I didn’t ever think I’d have the profession I said I would have at 16, but it definitely feels good knowing you had that foresight even back then.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are most proud of creating a safe, calming, beautiful tattoo environment full of creative energy that aims to support women in the arts in our community. Working in a male dominated industry was definitely not easy, but it makes you work twice as hard to get out of it and become your own entity. There is a lot of satisfaction in seeing your dream come to fruition.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Honestly we spend a lot of time escaping the hustle of the city when we want to relax, but Malia loves the Botanical Gardens and Oakland Cemetery. We frequent Elmyriachi across the street from our studio, they have vegetarian options and I’m a fan of their frozen margaritas. I (Brandi) love the Kimball House, the bartenders are interesting characters and they have amazing food. Shout out to Dekalb Farmers Market, Buford Hwy, Plaza Fiesta- if you want friends to see why we moved here this is a great start. I can think of a million more places we frequent- Atlanta is full of amazing art, culture, and especially food.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Without a doubt, our partner Amos Rifkin- who believed in us, and put an unimaginable amount of his time and effort into helping us get moving and gather momentum.

Website: https://www.empireartsgallery.com/

Instagram: @empireartsgallery

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empireartsgallery

Image Credits
All photos by Brandi Smart and Malia Rifkin Artwork on rolling walls in gallery(last photo) Weston Packard