Threadhead Spotlight: Bree Poort

Thread Ambassador Bree Poort lives the life we dream of. A Hawaii local, spending her time surfing and painting beautiful art pieces, it's safe to say we're a little bit jealous. We're so stoked to have someone as creative as her on our team. Read on to learn more about Bree! 

"Hey there, I'm Bree! I grew up in southern California and moved out to Hawaii for school, loved it so much I stayed. In my last semester of my Art Major, I started painting and putting it out there for people to see. People grabbed hold quickly and now I am grateful to do that for a living. My husband is my assistant surf buddy and we are loving life!!

Side note: I was present when Colby (owner of Thread) came up with the idea for the wallets. I got to be there when he was coming up with the logo and forming the idea that became such an amazing company. So I'm happy to help Colby where I can. It's been really amazing to see Thread grow to what it is!

I pant in the form of resin (the stuff they make surfboards out of), and I love to paint the perspective of the ocean from above. I started by obsessing over my drone photos and wanting to paint them. It became my form of therapy and then I started putting it out there. People responded really went to it. It was before resin started catching on as a trend so honestly, I think I just got in at the right time. Slowly over the last couple of years, I started getting rid of other forms of income and it has really made me confident in working with my art full time. I'm so grateful to be where I am (and never having to set an alarm in the morning haha). 

My biggest dream is to have a gallery in Laguna Beach and live above it. To have my studio behind the gallery and be able to be there all day long but be super close to home. We want to own a place in Hawaii and live there half the year. These are big thinkings but whatever I put my mind to, I usually put it to something tangible. I would also love to feed my other passion - yoga. I would love to lead retreats around the world with yoga and creative workshops!

I secretly love murder podcasts. I listen to it while I paint because my painting playlist on repeat can only happen every other day...haha no but seriously. I'll get sick of my music if I listen every day, so I give that a break and listen to murder podcasts or art podcasts. My failsafe is watching (but more like listening to) a show on Netflix or HBO, but no shows right now to report. 

Man, this is a hard question. If we are talking about here in Hawaii and not my favorites while traveling in different countries...I would have to say some of my staples are surfing by our condo (Turtle Bay) or surfing Chuns. I eat a poke bowl (raw tuna with rice) probably three times a week. And the gym every morning. Because we are never on the island more than a month at a time, when we are home I love to get into a routine. And my routine is pretty simple: Gym, paint, surf, eat, nap, paint again. Life is good.

I have gotten a lot of good advice. But the best advice I got wasn't necessarily from a person...but a Nike slogan..."Just Do It".

I'm the type of person to want to give up if things get hard so that saying becomes a mantra in my head until I complete the task. Maybe that's lame and not motivational but it really works for me.

Hmmm, if I were to give advice in the direction of reaching your dreams, I would say visualize and end date. Where you see yourself in your dream state 2-3 years from now. And as you really visualize it, week by week you are putting plans to action and getting those baby steps closer to your goal!"