The New Breed of Artist
Fellow Artist, Borbay
The New Breed of Artist
For centuries, artists have been stereotyped as complex individuals who search for deeper meaning; usually resulting in isolation. I have met a lot of artists in my day who fit that stereotype perfectly.
We are living within the information era, where people can figure out the name of a song by touching an icon on a digital screen that is housed within a shiny black hand-held device with a fruit illustrated on the back.
The ability to reach out to billions of people globally within seconds has forever changed the way an artist can market him or herself.
One of the most popular e-marketing/branding tools out there today is Twitter. I am not going to explain what or how twitter works, because if you don’t know what it is then you are probably not reading this article either.
Personal conflict about Twitter: How narsasistic must you be to think people actually care about what your doing or thinking at all moments of the day? Well, over 500 people care about what I am doing. (Note that 500 people is pretty weak in the world of Twitter)
Shameless self-promotion: Follow me on twitter @jeremypenn
I met a fellow artist, Borbay, through twitter (@Borbay). Borbay inspired this article because I believe artists should observe his methods of self-marketing. He uses these new forms of communication to promote his artwork and his brand. Yes, I said brand.
In a time where artists named Banksy & Mr. Brainwash are becoming household names, we might have no choice but to become a brand.
Personal thought: Warhol sought to destroy brands with repetition. Maybe Banksy is the “Wizard Behind the Curtain” who is birthing all these street artists in order to kill off……?
Borbay is not a street artist nor is he anti-establishment. He is a fine artist out on the street. For many, their creative zones are their studios. For Borbay, it is the streets of New York City. He isn’t wandering the streets at night with a bucket of wheat paste, spray paint, and some stencils; he is a day walker. His canvases are actually canvases. Borbay is best known as a location artist; painting the iconic architecture of NY’s most famous buildings.
Personal thought on Borbay’s work: What I find most interesting about Borbay’s work is his attempt to immortalize the inevitable death of newsprint by using collaged headlines as his backdrop. His paintings are vibrant, fun, and demand your attention.
The intention of this article is not to promote any particular artist’s work, but rather to use an artist who masters self-promotion as an example.
Borbay was always an artist, but like most of us, he was working a day job to help pay the bills and support is passion to paint. He was working in the marketing/advertising industry, helping build corporate brands.
Having helped cultivate identities for growing companies, Borbay decided to depart the ad world and begin investing his time into building his brand as a full-time fine artist.
His look, a meritage of Ted Nugent, Elvis, and Zach Galifianakis, is his logo. You might not like his style, but he will leave an impression on you.
Borbay and I are similar in that we both wake up very early and treat our art as a full-time job.
His mornings are full of communication with the world using new media marketing techniques such as tweeting, writing/replying to emails pertaining to his art, and blogging.
While it is just “another day in the office” for Borbay, he is hammering his name and image into the art world. Much like you can recognize the Pepsi logo, some are starting to recognize Borbay.
At first, I felt as though his approach at being a full-time artist was very commercially driven, but getting to know him, I see that he is simply evolving into something larger than himself.
While a lot of us hide behind our art, he is very comfortable being an extension of his art.
If I was his art consultant, I would be concerned that the perception would be that his work can become an accessory to the brand of Borbay.
I genuinely don’t believe he is concerned with the public perception. If there was a rock standing in between the artist and the art world, many artists would paint a pretty picture on that rock in order to win it’s approval. Borbay would break right through it and pave his own road. Where that road leads, only time can tell.
He is a new breed of artist not for changing a technical approach to painting, but because he is a self-marketing machine conforming to only one law, the law of inertia.
You can view Borbay’s work at: www.borbay.com
Tags: Borbay, Jason Borbay, Jeremy Penn, NYC Artist, Painting Resurrected
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