Artist Residency

Hi,

I’m Greg Mason Burns, and I’d like you to join me on a great project. I am going to attend an artist residency program that will culminate with an exhibit in November, and I want you to come with me!


Follow along and let’s see where we’re going with this...
 
At work during a residency program



First things first, what are we talking about:

An Artist is a person not always understood by society, who has the primary goal to make the world more beautiful or to provoke reflections with his or her own creations.

 
An Artist Residency is a limited period of time when an artist goes away to develop artistic skills and / or a body of work.
 

You are the person who believes that art can make the word a better place, who wants to have something exclusive and artistic in-home, and helps art to be developed.

 
Funds are what an artist needs to continue developing art.

(work-in-progress)
 


Why I Need You to Join Me:

I’m doing an artist residency program at Contemporary Arts International (CAI) in Acton, MA. The residency includes two months of developing art and a three-week exhibit that begins Nov 4, 2018, and it costs money:

·         Residency Fee: $1,500

·         Supplies: $500

·         Framing: $1,250

I am asking you to invest so that I can pay the fee and for frames.

 

How Are We Going To Do This?

You invest what you can and receive a reward in return. And I’d love to personally hand you what you chose at the exhibit!

Take a look:

 

What You’ll Get by Joining Me:

$1 – Thank You!


$7 – Exclusive access to all updates (I'll post this on a page on my website that only folks who contribute will get access to) including:

       - the exhibit in Nov, what I've learned,  and those all-important developing works-in-progress,

       - An "I Support Artists" sticker like the one below (various designs available - click here to see more ),

       - plus some huge thanks!

Spread the love, support artists



$25 – Watercolor postcard like the one below:

        - send me an image you’d like me to paint and I’ll send it back to you via the mail,

       - access to updates,

       - An "I Support Artists" sticker like the one above,

       - and a huge thank you, too!




$25 – A coffee mug with one of my paintings with the words “I support artists” on it. (various designs available - click here to see more )

       - access to updates,
     
       - an "I Support Artists" sticker like the one above,

       - and a huge thank you, too!

Drink up at home or the office!



$45 – A travel mug with one of my paintings with the words “I support artists” on it. (various designs available - click here to see more )

       - access to updates,

       - an "I support artists" sticker like the one above, 

       - and a huge thank you, too!

Take your coffee with you



$50 - A t-shirt with one of my paintings with the words "I support artists" on it like the one below.

       - access to updates

       - an "I support artists" sticker like the one above, 

       - and a huge thank you, too!

Men's and Women's available



$75 – <<BEST VALUE>> - Contributor status on my website and at the exhibit

      - a coffee mug like the one above,

      - an "I support artists" sticker, 

      - a watercolor postcard,

      - access to the updates,

      - many thanks for your contribution,

      - and you can also help choose the artist who gets the grant (see below).




$150 – a MASSIVE thanks here. That’s 10% of the goal with one shot. With this you’ll get:

      - Sponsor status on my website and at the exhibit,

      - access to the updates,

      - a watercolor postcard,

      - three studies from the residency (mix of oil, watercolor, or acrylic),

      - a travel mug and a sticker like the ones above,

      - and you can also help choose the artist who gets the grant (see below).

 
And there’s more!

(A few of the things I've been working on)

Spreading the Love to Other Artists

I wish everyone who is on the same path as me can be supported somehow. Because of that, I am going to share what I earn in sales from this exhibition.  Here is the deal: If I raise the full $2,750 by Nov 30, 2018, 20% of my take from art sales at the exhibition at CAI in November will go directly to another artist at my level of experience as a grant to that artist’s residency program. And depending on how much you contribute to this GoFundMe, you can help decide who that artist is.

I’ll keep you up to date on the grant process here on this GoFundMe campaign and on the updates page on my website.

 
My Story

I haven’t always been an artist professionally. In fact, I studied Journalism and Public Administration first. Then I did my Master’s degree in European Politics. All fascinating stuff, but I realized pretty early on that I didn’t have the personality for that line of work. I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do, and I’m not convinced I had the courage then to really explore my options, so I felt a bit lost.

After college I worked at an outdoor store, then at a restaurant and then at a baseball team before landing my first professional job as a budget analyst in the Massachusetts statehouse. Public policy can be invigorating work if not for all the politics, so I did some research about the longevity of corporate careers in healthcare and ended up in finance at a hospital. It doesn’t matter how important healthcare work is, filling in Excel spreadsheets every day was not for me. I was unhappy, not moving anywhere at work that made my life interesting enough to feel fulfilled. I decided to make a big change, and in 2011 I left my job and moved to South America. The goal was to develop myself and find happiness at work.

This was a crazy move considering I ended up living in two different countries without know the language in either one, but those years in Chile and Brazil were key to my development in art. I struggled financially and culturally, but I persisted in finding my voice as an artist. Exhibitions came slowly, but in time I earned an exhibit at a local museum in the south of Brazil.

Still, it wasn’t enough to stay afloat. I needed to teach English to pay the bills, and when my grandmother died in 2015, my family needed help running her bed and breakfast in my hometown in Maine. This seemed ideal, as I could work during the summer and develop my art during the winter. In 2017 I did a residency in Lisbon, Portugal. It was there I did my first artist talk on my project regarding Reception Theory (you can read more about the project here ).

I’m still working at my family’s inn in order to pay the bills, but time is so important. That’s why I’m doing another residency, and it’s why I’ll do one every year as I go forward. Residencies are my education, my time to think about only art so that I can develop the best body of work possible.

 
Do You Want To Come Along For The Ride?

Now I’m doing a residency at Contemporary Arts International (CAI), and this project is coming along great. My project (click here for more detail ), uses Reception Theory to investigate how the audience interprets the mass media’s message. My work takes the unnecessary noise out of the conversation, so I eliminate subject matter that isn’t important and leave in only the pieces that deserve conversation. Color Field is a technique that focuses only on color, so it is an ideal technique to use to maintain simplicity.

I will exhibit 8-10 paintings developed at the residency, plus another 10 previously done works at the exhibit that will run Nov 4 through Nov 30, 2018. I’d love for you to join me at the exhibit in-person, but even if you can’t, come join me virtually and be a part of making both mine and hopefully another artist’s dream come true.

(working hard)

Thanks!