ABOUT

Brianna Ortega is a multidisciplinary artist, director, and creative entrepreneur with a passion for storytelling and a deep connection to the ocean. With a background in running and directing a surf magazine called Sea Together for 6 years, Brianna has spent years capturing the essence of global surf culture through a creative lens. Her work with Sea Together  spanned continents, blending the raw energy of the sea with the rich diversity of global perspectives at a time when diversity was less common in mainstream surf media.

Brianna also holds a MFA in Socially Engaged Art and teaches surf studies, art, and art history for a university in Hawai’i. In addition to university level faciliation and education, she has hosted and offered workshops, coaching, and events across the world, empowering others to explore their creativity, connection to nature, and each other. 

Her work has been featured in various international exhibitions, film festivals, and publications, and she has received special recognition from the WSL for International Women’s Day for her contribution to global women’s surf culture. Whether through drawing, directing, or mentoring, Brianna remains committed to pushing the boundaries of creative expression, inspiring others to celebrate their unique voice through storytelling, connection, art, and community.

Artist Statement

Brianna Ortega is an artist who uses storytelling and social connection as a art medium through film, education, facilitation, and objects.

Through her creative practice, she questions issues of identity, power, and place. Bri’s embodied experience being female, mixed race (White, Black, Native American), a female surfer, growing up between Hawai'i and California and residing in the Pacific Northwest US for 10 years, and overcoming an autoimmune disease has influenced her to initiate conversations about place, belonging, and the displacement of people. In her creative practices, she creates spaces for people’s stories and identities to be nurtured and celebrated while bridging people with shared or differing opinions together for dialogue.

Brianna believes in collective healing and that the greatest healing takes place through sharing creative spaces with others. In 2022, she began faciliating creative spaces for women surfers around the world to overcome burnout in their personal lives, and she also facilitates bunny mediations, outdoor art and journaling workshops  in her small beach town.

Featured in:

Our Coast: Entertainment & Weekly
Outside Magazine, “The Wave of Body Positivity Is Finally Coming to Surfing”
HONEY Magazine Japan, print
HONEY Magazine, online
US News & World Report
Confessions of a Surf Lady Podcast