Hey there, folks. My name’s Brett Riggs, and I paint, draw, and make things look cool. I also happen to be a high school librarian in Shallotte, North Carolina. But don’t let the title fool ya—I’m just a guy with an art habit I never quite kicked.

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. As a kid, I was glued to a pencil. If I weren’t doodling, I was devouring everything from Star Wars, Norman Rockwell art and Heavy Metal Magazine, trying to figure out how people made things look that cool. I was obsessed with spaceships, heroes, and all that artistic wizardry.

By high school, I had turned my art addiction into a side hustle, painting logos and pin-up girls on fishing boats for salty old dudes who paid in cash and lousy life advice. Somewhere in there, I painted the Swan Song Led Zeppelin logo on the wall outside my dorm room—because, no oversight and a big wall, I did. College was a blur of bad decisions and good paintings, and after I graduated, I thought, why not get serious about this?

So, in 1998, I went to art school while working for The Man (because bills, ya know?). I got into animation, digital design, and the mystical arts of Adobe software, even getting certified before most people knew what Photoshop was. But like any artist with a steady paycheck, I somehow spent a decade not drawing a damn thing.

Then COVID hit. The world slowed down, and I picked up a brush again. And just like that—I was back.

From IT Guy to Librarian to “That Art Dude”

Now, you might be wondering how a guy like me ended up in libraries of all places. Fair question. In 1998, I started working in IT at Brunswick Community College, and by 2009, I was deep into academic libraries. Finished my Master’s in Library Science in 2010, which was also the start of a long, painful dry spell where my only artistic outlet was doodling ridiculous (and occasionally offensive) caricatures of my bosses during meetings. Cathartic? Absolutely.

By 2015, I got real professional—working for a nonprofit library service, serving on community boards, and doing all that “respectable” civic engagement nonsense. It took about two years for me to get bored out of my skull.

So, I pivoted to developing online instructional content, webinars, and YouTube videos for colleges. It was creative, sure, but not exactly scratching the artistic itch. By 2021, COVID was winding down, my contracts were expiring, and—hallelujah!—I got laid off. That was my cue to go all in on art again.

Back to What I Love

Not long after, I landed the gig as Media Coordinator at West Brunswick High School, and let me tell ya, I love this place! It’s the most fun I’ve ever had as a librarian, and I stay busy. Between work, family, and churning out paintings, life is full.

Speaking of family—my wife and I just hit 23 years of marriage, which is basically legendary status. We’ve got two sons: one’s off on a church mission making the world a better place, and the other? He’s a senior at West with me, constantly wrenching on his old Corvette and making it faster than common sense allows.

So here we are—I draw, I paint, I create. I’m an Adobe Certified Professional and an artist through and through. If you like what you see, stick around. I’m just getting started.

- B.