Sunday, 24 June 2012

artist or social media nerd

Our dear artists Art Burshy has several things to do...no, not to make art works...not getting new inspiiring art materials...not preparing an exhibition...not exploring new concepts...

He is in front of his computer, eyes turning small and red, he still has to check-read-answer his mails, upload his blog article as it is already some weeks ago, check his LinkedIn connections, find some interesting stuff to share with others, promote his exhibitions etc etc...
What happened to his dream of being a romantic artist, far away from modern sins and distractions, focusing on the purest and most authentic thoughts; being a true artist.

Well, Art has discovered that when you make art to express yourself...it feels great...but it remains just a nice 'hobby'.
If he wants reach people and to earn a living he needs to market himself, create a carefully constructed branding, and ensure this gets promoted all the way...He needs to facebook, tweet, share on LinkedIn, continuously feed his page (as by now he knows that Google will not crawl his page if it is static), publish a blog etc etc
And letting other people do it is quite expensive, and you are not sure really what you get...

And in the end it seems to work; he gets picked up by galleries, positive reactions and people interested to buy his art.

It does however make life as an artist a bit less attractive....
Well, Art sighs, makes himself a cup of tea, and continues his struggle with the computer until late at night.
And after that, just before going to bed, he will make just one last drawing, just to get the energy levels back to normal.

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Spring inspiration

Art Burshy loves spring...purely for the artisitic inspiration of course...

P.S. Had drawn this one some time ago, but guess just in time to talk about spring as really summer didnt start yet here in Europe...

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Super Art


Our friend Art is a very authentic and passionate person.
He cares about the world,
wants remove hunger from the world,
fights against the power and greed,
hates marketing as it sells the soul, 
and wants to make sure he spreads positive messages for art and the environment on the walls.

Sometimes however...
he gets a bit carried away,
like this time with this grafity...
and he willingly admits that...maybe...somewhere...these art expressions also could somehow be connected to his ego...

Well, don't worry Art...it could happen to all of us...couldn't it?  ;)

Sunday, 13 May 2012

hierarchy of temptations

Our artist Art Burshy loves to have a beer; not one but rather a few, the alcohol makes him feel he exists, touches his deeper soul and dives into the overwhelming pool of life.
He likes to remind people of a Dutch expression "Dronken mensen en kinderen spreken altijd de waarheid" which can be freely translated as "Drunk people and children always speak the truth".
So Art - especially while being drunk - feels he should follow this deeper truth.
And while being drunk everything is great,
he can make art works and they will be master pieces,
women at the bar become the true access to pure happiness,
the bar tender becomes a close friend to share deeper reflections,
the beer becomes an inspirational gold liquid that should be promoted as it brings true happiness.

Then afterwards when waking up he wonders whether all these inspirational and passionate moments were actually so brilliant:
- his master pieces have become undefined 'blobs' of colours on canvas
- the pure women have become grumpy bitches with deep lines in their faces and too much make-up
- the liquid gold beer has caused head aches and left a taste of dead birds in his mouth
- his friend the bartender has forgotten who he is, and seems to have more focus on young blond girls than old hairy artists like Art
So, if Art is really honest he might admit he feels regret, maybe even guilt of things he has done or how he has wasted his time.

But at the same time Art likes the bar, the memories bring a smile on his face, he feels a need to go to the bar again, meet his friends...so, he will go with best intentions, taking his first beer carefully. And after 2 beers the others buy him more beers, become joyful...and a dark lady touches his shoulder and asks him to 'dance'...and all he can mumble is: "...let me just finish my beer" as a last resistance to go again with the flow of his feelings, his passion, his adrenaline, his...testosterone.

C'est la vie d'Art ;)

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

What is and artists dream of success

Art Burshy is a true artist, uses art to reflect on his life, makes real choices, tries to learn from his mistakes (and there are many learning experiences for Art).
So what does Art dream about when longing for success
Of course there are the obvious 'official' answers, like:
- make the world a better place, help solve the real issues in the world
- ensure to help the happiness of important people around him
- to live life fully, not being like everybody else, not living a dull life, not being afraid of other peoples' views

But when in bed, falling asleep and sucking his thumb, you might catch the real Art and the depth of his soul.
So, first things he will do when being rich and successful? Well, only noble things:
- have his own office to represent his art professionally, of course not like other people "to show he is important" or "boost his ego"
- buy a nice suit and one of these colourful expensive ties to better perform sales for more wealthy potential clients. Of course not like other people "to appear like a flashy business man" and "attract finally a beautiful young girlfriend"

No, Art Burshy remains a humble artist at all times...right, Art?

Sunday, 15 April 2012

better not to be reliable...



Our artist Art Burshy meets many people when having drinks in his home-cafe, always ready to hear personal stories. This time he is talking to a business manager that is exhausted by work and all the problems he has to solve...
reminds him in many ways of how he was himself some years ago...creates a flashback of years ago:

At times Art felt great to be rewarded for working hard, structuring the approach, making business plans and always be there to solve issues...he was The Man to go to in times of crisis.
Somehow his energy levels (and maybe his ego a bit too) would grow when he was the one that could help others solve their issues, having special expertise, experience or skills...
These interesting issues and challenges were nice and inspiring at the start...but later often would become a burden; they would add to the tsunami of ToDo's, responsibilities, and energy-draining activities he still needed to do... and at times he felt like he was carrying the world on his shoulders...

He also discovered that:
- others were happy to screw up things in such a way that it outweighed all the lovely things that Art did,
- several people that created issues were happily leaning back and very relaxed, while Art was struggling to solve all the issues, cleaning up all the sh*t...
- after all nobody really seemed to care whether some items were resolved, and same things would repeat itself again and again...

So...how to deal with this...?
Well Art decided to let go of his reliable image and became the opposite...an artist
This allows him to be more eccentric, less predictable and... as soon as he mentioned he was an artist peoples expectations would drop dramatically...how convenient ;)

Not everyone will be happy about this, but then again Art realise other peoples happiness is not his purpose in life.

And I wonder, maybe Art is right...?

Saturday, 7 April 2012

music just brings out the best in me


Music inspires our friend Art Burshy,
makes him easily get into a flow,
touches his rare and deepest emotions,
enriches the expression in his paintings,
makes him active and energetic.

contrary to what happens when he watches TV,
which makes him wanna sit on a couch, 
drinking beers endlessly (and wine whenever he can afford to), 
pushing pizza and chips into his face,
only crawling out of his couch to go to bed
which is sometimes too much effort by then.

So when Art is alone with his music,
he dares to push boundaries,
paint while dancing and wear his angel wings...
something he didn't dare to do this when he was a child -
those days he was afraid to get caught while passionately swaying with his wings
but now this swaying is what he does
when making his most beautiful master pieces.

Monday, 2 April 2012

Pressure of a serious and authentic artist

Our artist Art Burshy considers himself as a serious and authentic artist; he tries to reflect on how to live his life and make the right choices. Of course he is vegetarian as 'production' of meat takes so much more than just vegetables. Of course he segregates his waste so it can be reused if possible or processed in a way that is better for the environment. His art is highly reflective and shows he makes the right choices in life. He also is a role model, explaining others how important it is to pass on this world to our children in the best way we can.

But then sometimes he feels this enormous temptation, once every 2 years he actually visits a fast food chain.
But what to do when people you know enter the restaurant; Art doesn't want to get caught eating a juicy hamburger, that doesn't fit his image and what he stands for, ...

Options:
a. hide behind the massive hamburger until they have left
b. try to sneak out the fast food restaurant, hoping they have a temporary case of blindness
c. act as if you don't recognise them, assuming they will not be busy searching for crazy artists in a place like this
d. go to them and confess this is the most important sin of recent years, and that you will do everything not to make such mistake again...
e. any other suggestion ?

Monday, 26 March 2012

presenting your business

Our artist, Mr Burshy, decides to go professional, make investments in his marketing and expositions, having the right (but expensive frames), use more expensive materials etc etc. But that requires money so he decides to seek investors and connect with business. Some of his commercial ideas:
- workshop finger painting for managers
- color-meditation for complaining employees
- design your authentic aura; what are your true colors and how to show them to your people
- find your painter-archetype; are you a Rembrandt, or more a Van Gogh, Pollock or just an amateur
- business and painting; comparing 2 completely different worlds

Problem that our Art faces is that he is not from the business, and although all these ideas seem logical to him, business people do not seem to be very interested...what could make business people want to invest in anything that relates to art...?

Friday, 23 March 2012

Almost feels like work


Art has succeeded to market his art and finally have an exhibition, but now he faces the next challenge... which art works to exhibit, and ... he needs to seriously make some new ones... and preferably all in the same style... and what began as pure inspiration and freedom...now feels almost like work :)

Sunday, 18 March 2012

you are stealing my composition - artists paranoia

Do you know these moments where you had a brilliant idea, been part of an exhibition and some other artists ask you "how did you do that". A bit of a dilemma... would you treat them as 'competitors' trying to copy from you, stealing the skills and methods you so carefully developed over the last years. Or are they travellers that are on the same journey, facing the same challenges, needing the same inspiration, and wanting to share the experiences on the way.
Art Burshy tries to remind himself in these cases that key evolutions in his learning have been influenced by others sharing their skills and insights with him.
But when people ask too much details or show too similar techniques he cant help to sometimes feel a bit paranoia...

Monday, 12 March 2012

Ambiguous relationship: art and religion


Some reflections after making this drawing:
Historically artists have tried to bridge the distance between 'now' and 'infinity' and addressing the existential questions in life. When exploring these subjects religion is always there; it is so much part of the culture that it can not be avoided. And as such the artist somehow needs to create his of her position towards religion. It can be to a) admire and using it as leading the way, b) explore looking at what religion means in certain contexts, c) ridicule from it and in some way attacking how religion creates an untrue image of the world, and d) ignore or focus temporarily on other subjects.
In the end, whenever going deeper into concepts and going deeper in the artists reflections existential questions appear; even if it was only the Freudian drive of the artist to overcome death by leaving traces of his/her art works as a heritage.

Sunday, 26 February 2012

22 steps to guaranteed success

the artist and his ideology...


Art Burshy has a great ideology which gives him lots of inspiration.
But after years of fighting for this passion he discovered the world is not listening and not rewarding him for his pure intentions.
And what initially inspired him becomes a source for his dark side, turning into heavy sarcasm that sucks away all the energy...
Of course this is pure fiction... this doesnt happen in real life ;)

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

business and art perspective



Contemporary Art Complex


Burka or not ?

Recently both in France and Holland a law was passed to prevent women from wearing a burka...together with winter that inspired me for this image...

Art Burshy > Inspiration

Drawing another cartoon in my notepad... it is not always great to have negative things happening, but they do add lots of inspiration when exploring them...

Monday, 13 February 2012

Art Burshy > born in my art blog


Art Burshy had just delivered his paintings to his gallery for the newest exhibition.
When he arrived the woman that organises the exhibition and had been in touch with Art directly came to him, with a face as if she had just eaten a rotten grapefruit.
Art Burshy opened his eyes, and his eye brows moved into a puzzled frown...what had he done wrong now?
The woman started to tell him that he was late, the art works should have been delivered some days ago, also as some of them still had to be framed and the exhibition started already in a week. Did he not read the many mails and reminders she had sent? Why had he not picked up his mobile phone when she had tried to call him? What did he think he was doing? Did he not want to make this exhibition a success? Did he not remember that he had signed a document, committing specifically to deliver the art works on time and packed in the right way?

Many thoughts crossed Art's mind:
- did she not know that she was dealing with a creative artist, not with a bureaucratic organiser of vernissages?
- did she expect him to read his mail every day; wow, Art thought that e-mail actually was created for non- urgent topics, to be read at a time that it is convenient for the recipient.
- was she surprised he did not pick up his phone when she called, knowing she is such a tight-ass frustrated and over-stressed old bat?
- did they not get 70% of the sales revenues, and was he then supposed to solve all her problems?

After the woman had kept nagging for almost 20 minutes Art tried to intervene; "where would you like me to put them?".
For a moment the woman was surprised, but instantly after that she started again with her diarrheaof words.
Then Art's good mood as by lightning disappeared, his ears became red, he started to shiver, and finally after a silence where he had stopped breathing, he screamed:
"I AM AN ARTIST...SO I HAVE THE RIGHT TO F*CK THINGS UP"

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Artist comment >>
This was the first time I have drawn Art Burshy. I used it in an article at www.mauriceblog.org to illustrate the La Valise Noire concept. I just started drawing a funny image of myself (and no, it doesn't look like me) and ended up drawing Art. The character didn't have a name at that time...that came recently.
Response was directly quite positive, even people asking me whether there are bumper stickers or merchandise of it. Well, not yet, but decided now to start publishing in a more structured way.

Hope you enjoy the cartoons, and let me know if you have any ideas.

Maurice