How did you guys meet?
Brian: We actually met all the way back in 1998. We were both 8-years-old and we really have been pretty much inseparable ever since!
Johnathan: Most people ask us, "So, did you guys meet in college?" But no, definitely not. Saying that we are best friends is really a technicality, because in reality we are more like brothers.
So, who are you guys? How do you identify yourselves?
B: I would say we are part artist, part entrepreneur. Jonathan, by nature, is a musician, and I, by nature, am an artist. We like to push our creativity, so our art and creativity definitely played into it. For this project we really combined all of our strengths together.
J: Yeah, we are artists/creatives/goofballs!
What was the inspiration behind starting "The Gay Beards"?
B: I started growing my beard In October of 2013, Jonathan soon followed. Close as we are, we soon found out than one couldn´t have a beard without the other. We're also gardeners, and when our buddy, who is in the film industry, asked for us to take pictures with some of our flowers in our beard, we just knew that this was something that we would want to do for a very long time. It just felt right.
Even though your images as a whole definitely obey a very cohesive aesthetic, the individual images are all also very unique. Where do you find your inspiration?
B: Being from Oregon we are surrounded by nature, so our day-to-day lives, as well as the different seasons, are a great source of inspiration for us. But we also like to push creative barrier to catch people's attention and really make them think. We like to think outside the box.
J: And sometimes things will just sporadically come to our heads. We definitely find inspiration in a great variety of things.
Other than exploring artistic innovation, what is the ultimate goal behind your work?
B: We really want to use "The Gay Beards" as a platform to be inspirational. Being gay -- we had a time in our lives where we understood the struggles of not being accepted and not knowing how to feel about our own identities. That still sticks with us today. With this project we want to try and encourage other people to be who they want to be and to make them feel that there are no restrictions in life.
J: And with that we are trying to create a certain positivity for people of all ages and all locations.
So what does the future have in store for the "The Gay Beards"?
B: In the near future, we really want to push towards publishing, We've even been toying around with the idea of writing a children's book! We are also going to focus more on the comedy aspect of our Youtube channel because, although we love to push our creativity, we would also like to show the public the more goofy side to our personalities.