By Jonathan Burger, Craven Arts Council & Gallery, Inc.
Where are you from and how’d you end up in New Bern, NC?
I’m from Durham, NC. I lived there last in the mid 90s, before taking a stab at mountain life in Western NC. A few winters in, I decided those cold, wet, and grey months were not for me, so I moved to other side of our state, looking for a climate where I could at least enjoy greenery year round. In 2011, I met my future wife through an online dating app, and even though there was a thirty minute commute between my work and her house, I moved in and made New Bern my new home. It’s been our home together for almost 15 years and we both are happily here for the long term.
Do you have formal training as an artist, or are you self-taught, or a combination?
In my senior year of high school, I had 5 art classes out of a 7 period day. I applied to only one school (which I was thankfully accepted to!), and headed off to Washington D.C. to attend the Corcoran School of Art in 1988. I graduated with a BFA in ’92. My final week of school, our professors gathered all of the seniors in the auditorium, and told us that “In five years, only 5% of you will still be doing anything with art”. I promised myself then that I would always be in that five percent, and have been showing in galleries ever since, while of course maintaining other careers to keep bills paid.
My years in D.C. at the Corcoran are also where I got into touring with the Grateful Dead, and began my love affair with tie dye. I’d make my gas money to get from city to city by selling burritos and hand made tie dye clothes. While I don’t sell burritos anymore, I do create the clothes, and it’s as much of my artistic life as the paintings are.
Does your work have a central theme, or several themes?
I don’t claim a theme, but over the years I have developed a very distinctive style. Whether in watercolor or acrylic, it’s not hard to identify my work in a gallery. My paintings are built on a structure of loose strokes, which comes inherently from fast painting. While I am a patient person, that doesn’t apply so much in my art, as I don’t like having any work on my easel or drawing board for too long. Another theme that can be found in all of my work is a strong sense of light, which comes from my appreciation of contrast. One can’t have light without dark, and I incorporate both in my paintings.
You work in several mediums, with a lot of your works done in acrylic and watercolor. Can you talk about the similarities and differences with those two mediums and what draws you to them?
I fell in love with watercolor in high school. For one, as a medium, it was quite inexpensive, and I like the “flowiness” of it. The fact that it dried very fast was also an appeal. At the Corcoran, I took only one painting class, mostly because I didn’t feel the need for anyone to tell me how to paint. We had to use oil, and I loathed that medium. (And my oil paintings were terrible, ha!)
Over the years, I learned to control the medium, which is very unforgiving. A “mistake” in watercolor can’t be erased, can’t be painted over. One has to learn to accept they’ll happen and to use them to better the work instead of ruin it. It wasn’t until after I had moved to New Bern that I created my first work in acrylic, and I found instantly that I enjoyed the medium.
While I can still thematically explore my appreciation for color and contrast, I can also paint much larger. That was an attraction. The two mediums are quite opposite.
With watercolor, the artist must identify the light areas and details first, and in acrylic, those come in last, or at least during the creation of the work. One is painting backwards in terms of the other.
You started the New Bern Artist Studio Tour in 2018, can you talk about what inspired you to do that, and what it does for the community?
The amount of local talent that New Bern has, it’s always astounded me that a “small town” can have the collection of creative minds that we do. I had learned of other cities doing studio tours, and I knew we had the number of artists here that could make it work. I sparked the idea, but it was a whole team of volunteers that came together to make it happen, and thankfully those same people and ideas have carried on to keep the tour going. I love that we have this event to share not only with our local population, but gives those visiting from out of town yet another wonderful way to experience the flavor of what New Bern has to offer. After the first two tours, my second career (computer repair/networking, etc) made my life a bit too busy to keep it going, but as I said, thankfully those who had been there with me from the beginning have kept it going, and it’s become an even larger event every year. I want very much for that to continue, and I’m beyond happy that after a multi year absence I’m able to take part in the tour once again.
What one piece, award, or exhibition are you particularly proud of, and why?
You aren’t tossing out much in the way of softball questions. When an artist has hundreds of works (and sales) behind them, it’s very hard to pick out just one. Every time I take a new painting off my easel, THAT’s the one I’m most proud of. I do many self-portraits, creating a new one every couple of years. It’s nice to see both the progression of my work since the last one as well as physical changes. With that being said, I’ll put out my self-portrait “I Am A Painter – A Self Portrait” as a strong contender. I’ve won a number of “first place” awards before, but this was one that took that honor in a juried show that had hundreds of entries from a wide area of artists. The portrait started with a single brush stroke, that was the first on the canvas and stayed untouched until its completion. Had it not been the color or structure I was looking for, I wouldn’t have bothered painting the actual portrait part of it.
What advice do you have for artists just starting out, or people wanting to get into art?
Seek out other artists. Pick their brains, show them your work, but above all, just create. Don’t let frustration or fear (both are natural) bring you down. I can show anyone that wants to see some really bad paintings that I’ve created. I have a habit of not throwing them out or painting over them because in a way they are a better reminder to me than one of my better ones that striving to improve doesn’t come easy all the time. I like to challenge myself constantly. That doesn’t mean I am constantly painting; I can easily go a couple months without picking up a brush, but when I do, I push myself very hard to create something that is the best I’ve created yet.
A new artist will appreciate that advice when they compare what they created last night with something they had done a year ago.
In one sentence, what is art to you?
Art is the translation of how we interpret our surroundings as seen through our eyes.
I know you’ll be on the 2025 New Bern Artist Studio Tour, and part of the exhibition, but where else can people find your work?
Here locally in New Bern, my work can be found at Carolina Creations. Also, keep an eye out during any local craft fairs for my Dye Smiling tie dye booth. It’s easy to spot as there is an explosion of color underneath my tent!