Meet German Contemporary Artist Ivan Beslic
Q: How do you create your artwork?
A: I always start the artwork with a black marker on white paper or Canvas, doing a rough outline sketch, then the real work begins. It is all about freestyle tagging and scribbling, using different colors and marker pens. The more layers you put on the paper, the better the effect is at the end. The details are coming after finishing the main tagging job
Q: Who is the person that surprised you the most when asking you for an art piece?
A: Definitely Spike Lee! He bought my Jesus Shuttlesworth (He Got Game) and Charles Oakley (NY Knicks) artworks a few years ago. We handled everything via Instagram and his assistant back then. A few months later I got an email from Spike to call him, I thought first his assistant would pick up or something. It was an unreal moment when Spike was on the line, he commissioned me to paint portraits of himself as Mookie (Do the right thing) and of Mars Blackmon (She's gotta have it). I still can not believe that this happened, he owns now five pieces of my artwork. Spike is a legend in the Game.
Q: How long have you been working in the art community?
A: I started doing art back in 2007. My Super Nintendo was not working one night and I was bored and started doodling on paper, out of nothing. It was a good feeling, somehow relaxing- so i went to the art shop the next day to buy some colors and brushes. What started as a hobby became a passion and now it is my job. I am selling artworks since 2008 but the art business got more serious around 2014.
Q: What is something that you like and dislike about you do?
A: Drawing is like a therapy for me, it makes me feel good. The other thing is to be able to create something that will last, maybe forever. It is a dope feeling to see that somebody hangs your work in his living room for the next 30 years. These things makes me happy. What I do not like about what I do is, trying to reach perfection in an artwork which is already finished and to continue to work on it. It is a never ending Story. I am also painting on several artworks at the same time. A big problem is that I would rather start a new Piece than finish the old one. There are pieces I have started 2 years ago and they are still not finished.
Q: How could the public purchase your art? Do you do custom designs?
A: I got an online shop on my website where people can buy limited edition prints , new prints are getting added monthly. Feel free to check www.ivanbeslic.com . If you are interested in buying an original just shoot me an email or dm. I do commissions too, but depending on projects I am working on things could take some time to be finished.
Q: What is your favorite color to work with most?
A: I just go with the flow. I use a lot of different colors in my artworks. Nowadays, I like to highlight my work with some pink strokes for example. Bordeaux and Beige are some of my all-time favs.
Q: Who is your dream person to work with?
A: In the last years I got to collaborate with a lot of different brands and worked on some cool projects. I am now working on my own clothing line, trying to show the art to a bigger audience. There is no dream person for me to work with, it just has to feel good. I am always open to new cool collabs. Sky's the Limit.
Q: What is a couple ways that you keep a fanbase?
A: That is a good question. Instagram is a number one tool for a visual artists. My @artisbullshit account currently counts 11k followers, but i got to admit that I am very lazy with posting stuff sometimes. I should really post more often and do more stories. Sometimes I just forget to reply to messages, sorry fam- i promise improvement ;-D
Q: What is your favorite piece you have made?
A: There are artworks which I really like and keep for myself, like my first J Dilla or Biggie artwork. I kept the originals but made limited prints of them. Both editions are sold out.
Q: Would you ever want to open your own gallery? why or why not?
A: I am not sure about that, as an artist I would rather exhibit my stuff in different galleries around the globe than having my own place to exhibit my work. I better like the idea of an own big studio where people can come over and check out some work. Mobility and time are important things in an artist's life these days.