Meet the Artist: Brinnlee Kruitbosch

Painting Louis B. Mayer

If you walk into Brinnlee's studio, the first thing you'll notice is the music.

She has a collection of over 100 CDs, mostly from the '40s through the '90s, and something is almost always playing while she paints. She's been making things since she was a little girl: painting, sketching, sculpting, anything that ended with something in her hands. These days she works in acrylic, and she doesn't do anything quietly. Bold lines, bold color, and something to look at in every corner of the canvas.

So it fits that she's painting the man behind some of the boldest color Hollywood ever put on screen.

Louis B. Mayer didn't start anywhere near Hollywood. He was born in the Russian Empire, grew up in Canada, and spent his early years working in his father's scrap metal business. In 1907 he bought a run-down theater in Haverhill, Massachusetts, cleaned it up, and started showing movies. Then he started distributing them. Then making them.

In 1924, a merger created Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Mayer ran it for the next 27 years.

Under him, MGM became the biggest studio in Hollywood. Its slogan claimed "more stars than there are in heaven," and Mayer built the system that made them: Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Jimmy Stewart. He also helped found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is why we have the Oscars. And he kept a famously tight grip on his stars' lives, which plenty of them didn't love.

The decade where Brinnlee's music collection starts is the same decade MGM was turning out musicals like The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis. Dorothy stepping out of a gray farmhouse into full Technicolor might be the best argument for painting bold there is.

Next time that lion roars before a movie, you'll know who built the studio behind it.

Builders + Titans is Part 3 of Influencers Over Time, a five-part exhibition inspired by TIME's 100 most influential people of the 20th century. 18 local Utah artists. 20 portraits of the people who shaped the modern world we live inside every day. Every portrait comes with its own audio story, and there are treats to grab as you wander.

🗓️ October 23–25

📍 The Studio, 4750 W 800 N, West Point, Utah

Admission is free!