Cover Star: Brittney Palmer
Brittney Palmer is more than just a pretty face; she is a thirty-three-year-old contemporary artist, a philanthropist, UFC octagon girl, Playboy cover girl, traveler, dancer, and model. Brittney knows how to hustle, and each job she takes on helps her achieve her dreams. Growing up in Las Vegas, Palmer has been a UFC ring girl since the age of nineteen. She was a professional dancer in Las Vegas shows and a cocktail waitress at Hard Rock Hotel’s REHAB pool party and PURE Nightclub at Caesars Palace. She worked hard for the money. That money paid her way through art school; in fact, she paid for it upfront in cold hard cash. All the work was worth it.
At the age of twenty-one, life changed for Brittney after being injured in a car accident. Palmer was out of commission for about three months; she couldn’t walk or dance, but she discovered something she could do that she had never shown interest in before, she could paint. Brittney used the time she had at home to put the emotions she was experiencing on canvas. She had discovered her calling. When she recovered from the accident, Brittney realized she didn’t want to go back to the same things she was doing before; she wanted to paint! She moved to Los Angeles and began studying art at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has stayed with the UFC and now uses the social media following she has built to showcase her creations.
Palmer says, “my first commissioned painting was an Amy Winehouse painting, and it sold for maybe a thousand bucks, so three months after I moved to L.A., I started selling my work.” Since then, various exhibits have featured her art at institutions and galleries in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Hong Kong, and Milan. Palmer recently did two Pop-Up Gallery shows called Electric Flow at Park MGM in Las Vegas. It was at this Gallery Brittney was able to show Lady Gaga a painting that she had completed of the star. It was an incredible moment for Palmer to witness her reaction, and Gaga committed to buying the painting for her foundation. Palmer also has her art pieces displayed in the lobby of the W Hotel in Hollywood. With many people still not wanting to venture out, Brittney’s next show in L.A. will be virtual so that everyone can see it. Palmer says she is always thinking ahead, “At my last show I was thinking about my next show, I never settle at one thing.”
Palmer uses a lot of vibrant colors in her artwork and describes her art as spontaneous realism. She has big plans, “I want to keep exhibiting and working with museums, doing lectures, and getting more into the world of art; it is such a powerful, big, broad-spectrum. I want to do huge collaborations with big brands and take my art global.” The artist also supports a lot of charities, which she loves. She works with amfAR and UNICEF as a donating artist. She is a prominent supporter of Steven Tyler’s Janie’s Fund and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. Palmer is also working with a public benefit fashion company called One Golden Thread that prints her art on scarves that can be used as face coverings, which everyone is using right now
Q&A
What makes you the best version of yourself?
Just being who I am, with no apologies and no explanation necessary. So many people want to be someone else or always compare themselves to other people. I think it is important that we are all individuals because we are all beautiful, we are all perfect in the way that we are. So to stay true to that and not worry if I can be on the cover of Playboy or be an artist, or if those two can’t go together. Why not? Why? Make your own rules. I was talking about art while I was in Playboy. Never apologize for anything, and trust who you are.
What do you love about working with the UFC?
I love the sport. I genuinely love the UFC; I think it’s so fascinating and exciting. It is an amazing show, I love the production value, and I love the people I work with. My best friend is Arianny Celeste, she is like my sister, and we travel the world together. We do the same job, wear the same clothes, and do each other’s make up. I love that I get to travel, meet people, and see the world. I feel like a lot of people would benefit from seeing more of the world because you can understand how much more there is out there, and that has helped me at such a young age to grow up.
What’s your workout and health routine?
“I don’t eat meat. I’ll eat fish if it’s good fish, but very limited. I used to take every kind of workout class before the quarantine, but now I have just been doing home workouts, two-mile runs every day, and yoga. I always have to switch it up and sweat in some way every day.” Palmer says she’s also fallen in love with home workouts during the quarantine. She may stick with it and not go back to classes or a gym. She loves not having to be at a class at a particular time, enjoying the freedom to do it when it fits her schedule.
If you had to indulge in a meal, what would it be?
It would be Truffle pasta from Crossroads.
When it comes to luxury, what are your favorite things?
“I am my father’s daughter, so I love luxury cars.” Palmer also likes watches and has a vintage Rolex, 1979. She spends most of her money on travel, saying, “I’d rather buy a first-class ticket to Bali than a bag; I like the experiences, and that kind of luxury.”
What’s your style?
Day-to-day Palmer is boho, casual, artsy, and fun, but she also enjoys dressing up. One of her favorite looks was a skirt she wore to a gala in Hong Kong, “I wore a Jean-Michel Basquiat huge skirt, he’s one of my favorite artists, so it was like a graffiti skirt that I wore at the amfAR.”
INSTAGRAM: @brittneypalmer @brittneypalmerart | WEBSITE: brittneypalmer.com
