Greg Mason Burns

Artistic Process

Bowdoin College Chapel is an abstract photography image.

How to Write an Artist Grant (from the perspective of a grant reviewer)

How to write an artist grant is a difficult question to answer. Artists are good at making art, not doing administrative funding tasks. Yes, I'm an artist. I've written a lot of grants and I've only succeeded once. That's probably not a great score, but that's more to do with competition than anything else. I'm also a grant reviewer who is lucky enough to have gotten a behind-the-scenes look at what a good grant looks like. I wrote an article for the Maine Arts Journal on my experience as a grant reviewer to help artists navigate this tricky realm. To give...

Essen Coal #1 is an abstract photo of the Welterbe Zollverein mine in Essen, Germany.

Reception Theory as a Visual Art

A Definition of Reception Theory Reception Theory judges an audience's response to a particular communication method. In particular, it began as an analysis of how readers interpret literary texts. Interpretation is inherently built into Reception Theory. This means there is a gap, a difference of opinion, between what the communicator meant and what the audience understood. Reception Theory academics often tackle the two sides of the theory: what is communicated and what is interpreted. How I Interpret Reception Theory I work specifically with that space in between what is communicated and what is interpreted. To me, that space is fundamentally emotional. This is...

First Parish of the Abstract Artist abstract photo using blue, green, grey, and yellow

Redirecting the Message

Redirecting the Message: A Definition Redirecting the Message is an art project that revolves around misinformation and communication bias. I take images, words, and objects and re-purpose them into other forms so that a new message is created from the old one. This is a part of my Reception Theory project, which relates to communication and interpretation. Therefore, the purpose is to show how one message can easily be changed to mean something different. In other words, information is easily re-purposed to fit the communicator's agenda. As a result, the audience must decide what is real or not. What to Look For For instance, if...

Conversations About Art: with Bazévian

[caption id="attachment_3826" align="alignleft" width="186"] Post synthétique I by Bazévian - oil pastel, oil, acrylic, and ink on canvas - 60 x 40cm[/caption] I recently started doing conversations about art and what people in the art world think about their field of work. The first article was about abstract art with Guido Viaro, the writer from Curitiba, Brazil. Today's article is about figurative art, and for that I caught up with emerging artist Bazévian. He is primarily a portrait artist, specializing in capturing the homeless using oil pastel and china ink. Bazévian is originally from the north of France, and he grew up under...

Conversations About Art: Abstract with Guido Viaro

[caption id="attachment_3837" align="alignright" width="250"] One of Guido Viaro's favorite artists: Kandinsky - Improvisation 3 - Oil on Canvas (1909) - Centre Georges   Pompidou[/caption] Guido Viaro and Abstract Art As a writer, Guido Viaro is currently working on abstract short stories, but it's abstract as an idea that influences him. "In my working room I’m surrounded by abstract paintings by Guido Viaro," he says of his grandfather of the same name. "I love all Kandinsky, perhaps for his previous studies of proportions and colors. I love Paul Klee for his fake innocence. I love Jorge Luis Borges for his short story “The Aleph”....

Trust in the Process: Understanding Introversion (because we don’t)

[caption id="attachment_3846" align="alignleft" width="226"] Understanding Introversion: Self-Portrait - oil on canvas (2014)[/caption] Understanding Introversion Part I this series is here Part II this series is here Part III this series is here Part IV this series is here Introversion and being an artist actually have little to do with each other. As much as people would like to pigeon-hole artists into the introversion category, I'm not convinced it's true. There are an awful lot of artists out there who prefer to just want to be out there with other people, attending shows, or generally being the center of attention. As it happens I'm not one of...

Trust in the Process: The Myth of the Right-Left Brain Mentality

[caption id="attachment_3213" align="alignnone" width="1100"] The Myth of the Right-Left Brain Mentality: City VII - Roses - Oil on Canvas (2014)[/caption] Part I of this series is here Part II of this series is here Part III of this series is here The right and left parts of the brain may do certain things, but they don't operate exclusively. I took this right-brain vs. left-brain test recently and scored 16 out of a possible 21 (there are 22 questions, but one is the same with reversed answers). I'm borderline "moderate" to "strong" right brain, which means I'm supposed to be more creative in my life. There...

Trust in the Process: Where Does Creativity Come From?

[caption id="attachment_3213" align="aligncenter" width="1100"] Where Does Creativity Come From? - City VII - Roses - Oil on Canvas (2014)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3865" align="alignleft" width="250"] Igreja Do Cerro Branco - Watercolor on Board (2014)[/caption] Part I of this series is here. Part II of this series is here. Where Does Creativity Come From? Count me as skeptical. But skeptical of what is something I'm not really sure about. Where does creativity come from? I have no idea, except I know that it comes from me. I guess maybe it comes from the universe, or the Universe, whichever you feel better about. Or maybe it comes from within....

Music and Its Inspiration in the Studio

I'm a big music fan. I couldn't hold a note if you glued it to my hand, but I certainly try when working in the studio. In general I'm most inspired by Indie bands such as The Mars Volta, Cloud Cult, or Sleater-Kinney, among others. I also have a lot of New Wave and Mod-Rock on my playlist. Even Flamenco gets me in the mood more than once per week. For some strange reason, however, I've lately been heavily inspired by outlaw country - mostly songs like Waylon Jennings's Ain't No God in Mexico or Willie Nelson's Pancho and Lefty....

Art and Productivity: Trust in the Process

To read the first part of Art and Productivity, click here:  [caption id="attachment_263" align="alignright" width="300"] Trust in the process: This painting took time to realize[/caption] In the first part of this series, I mentioned two things. One is how the artist can never shut off the artistic process. And the other is that the artist is just as productive as the normal corporate worker, if not more so. In this part I'll talk about the real reason why the starving artist exists. The Myth of the Starving Artist There is this myth that the starving artist exists because suffering creates great art. There may...