TEKSTartist

T

He was in a client meeting. As the client talked about their vision of the company and the importance of their project, he drew some structured yet seemingly random lines and shapes on the corner of his note pad. He was, in fact, paying attention but found that because of his “insane” ADD, it helped him focus. The client (who also happened to be a rather successful artist) noticed the work and mentioned that he should think about creating some artwork using the stylized patterns he’d come up with. Of course he didn’t take this very seriously. Nice complement but probably won’t drop everything to get rolling on that idea. Eight months later, he is about to take his first real step into the art world. A very new art world co-created by his love for the online world. He’s 26 and was pretty sure that “artist thing” was unachievable and yet, on the 16th of  you’ll be able to buy his one of kind artwork here.

His handle is TEKSTartist and his art is unique. (I know. I know. All art is unique. While simultaneously ripping another artists off.) It’s art for the new world we live in. The digital world. The Internet has been around a long time but until social media took off it was little more than information with the occasional bout of eye candy. Social, personalized the technology and his artwork is a direct result of that personal connection. What makes his art so unique?

  1. The making of each piece is recorded on video. With access to that video, the owner of each piece feels as though they were there for the creation of that piece. The video is a part of the artwork.
  2. Each piece is going to come with a QR code that can be scanned so that anyone standing in front of the piece will be able to share in the creation of that piece.
  3. The artwork comprised of words relating to composition; hence the name TESKTartist. (The Fail Whale piece above is made up of the names of the first 140 users – that are still active – on Twitter and the Steve Jobs piece (below) that was created 1 month before he died, contains words around his famous 1983 keynote) Other than the subject matter his makes the piece an informational piece. A kind of deeper more beautiful Infographic.
  4. His art is created with ink on canvas. Canvas that was supplied entirely by Art Alternatives. Back when the project was just a moonshot of an idea, he pitched the idea to them and without hesitation they sent an entire truckload of canvases his direction.
  5. He is launching his project November 29th and has 366 pieces to sell up for grabs. The first piece is $1 and goes up $1 for every day in the year. This method of selling was inspired by a conversation with t-shirt guy on the way home from SXSW and the gates open 11am PST and I believe they will go fast. (An infographic of the release can be found here.)

By Michael Myers