Austin Artist Wants to Bring Color, Craft, and Artistic Community to the West Side

Multidisciplinary artist Briana Shields learned to dance at well-known local arts institutions like Stairway of the Stars in Maywood and the Lou Conte Dance Studio in the West Loop, and studied visual arts at Marwen before attending the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

But if Shields, 33, had her way, she would have been able to develop her artistic skills by staying in the place she calls home — Austin.

“This is where my roots are, this is where I’m from,” Shields said. “My family is here. My memories are here. The West Side is connected to my purpose.”

That sense of place — and what was missing from it — is what led Shields to launch Deco Ave Creative Studio & Wellness House, a new venture she soft-launched April 7 after nearly a decade of working as a freelance creative.

“I’ve been freelancing for about 10 years,” she said. “I never incorporated. I was just getting experience — making money as an artist, working as a contractor.”

Over time, that work began to take shape around marketing and communications. Shields found herself designing brands, building campaigns and helping organizations tell their stories, often as a contractor for nonprofits and small businesses. At the same time, she was trying to hold onto her own artistic identity as a painter, dancer, and multidisciplinary creator.

At a certain point, though, the two began to clash.

“As a graphic designer, I started treating my marketing work like art,” she said. “And that created tension. Organizations had ideas, but I wanted to create my own.”

Deco Ave is her answer to that tension by allowing her to separate, but also honor, both sides of her work.

On one end is her personal practice, Briana Janeé Arts, where she explores her own creative voice. On the other is Deco Ave, where she collaborates with clients on branding, marketing strategy, graphic design, and content creation.

“I really love working with people and bringing their businesses to life,” she said. “Helping them develop their brand identity — that’s something I enjoy.”

Right now, Shields is the primary creative behind Deco Ave, bringing in collaborators for things like videography when needed. But she sees the studio as something that can grow beyond her.

“I need to have a team,” she said. “This is a bigger opportunity.”

Part of that opportunity, she said, lies in a gap she’s experienced firsthand.

“There are a lot of creatives on the West Side,” she said. “What there isn’t is necessarily a central space.”

She points to what she calls “pockets” of activity — dance studios, art spaces, and emerging hubs — but says there are still limited places where artists can develop professionally, especially in the space between school and a sustainable career.

“There’s a need for artists to learn how to freelance and understand the business of the arts,” she said. “There aren’t many places where you can get that kind of development.”

Deco Ave is also meant to meet another need, one she sees growing as more businesses take root on the West Side.

“Marketing is one of the foundations of a successful business,” she said. “Being able to have access to someone who understands what it takes to build something from the ground up matters.” 

For now, Shields is building the studio the way she built her freelance career — through relationships.

“I just network,” she said. “I have a grassroots approach that’s about relationship-building, being a go-getter, thinking strategically with what I have.”

Shields said she ultimately wants to open a permanent physical space on the West Side where where creative services, programming, and community events can all happen under one roof.

“It would be somewhere we can do marketing services, but also host programming, maybe curate gallery shows, have events,” she said. “There might even be a retail component.”

Underlying that vision is a deeper philosophy about what art can do.

Shields said her work as an artist focuses on color theory and its relationship to wellness, particularly how color can shape emotion and influence how people feel in a space. That thinking carries into the bright, vivid look and feel of the Deco Ave brand aesthetic. 

“The West Side needs color, liveliness, excitement,” she said. “But not chaos. Not negativity. Something that feeds your spirit.”

For Shields, art is more than expression; it’s a tool for healing, storytelling, and connection.

“Art is restorative. It captures history,” she said. “It can do so many things.”

For more information on Deco Ave Creative Studio & Wellness House, visit instagram.com/decoavecreativestudio