Ramon Bruin’s Stories, Lessons & Insights

Ramon Bruin shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Ramon, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
What is really bringing me joy lately is practising even more playing guitar. Lately I’m focussing on a style called sweep picking, which sounds incredible, but is so hard to play. I love to try different styles and combine these to create interesting pieces of music

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Ramon Bruin and I am an professional artist from the Netherlands. Back in 2012 I gained worldwide recognition with my 3d opticical illusion drawings. This was completely new style in which the drawing appears to leap of the paige. Most of the time merely drawn with a few pencils on paper, which made it very inspiring for others to try. With cheap materials you can create mindbending illusions.
Since then have created tons of art in different styles. I create large paintings in a neo-expressionstic / popart style, popart doodles painting, next level drawings and large scale murals.
I just love to explore and create and show the world what I’m doing via YouTube and Instagram.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I have no idea who I was and that was the problem. Before I became a professional artist I had numerous of fairly meaningles jobs. Part of my identity was linked to the work I did. I was a lot, but I wasn’t authentic. And that is what I wanted to be.
And now, years later, I actually feel authentic. I am myself, with all my flaws and talents. And I love it every day

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
The art world is a beautiful world, but also a harsh world with loads of scammers. Some even don’t realize they scam artist, because they have been doing it for so long. We all know the stories of managers who are scamming musicians. This happes a lot in the artworld to with art handlers and galleries.

This is superfrustrating and you have to be in a constant state of aweressness.

But it can also be funny sometimes, for instance: This one time an art handler asked me to do a 3d drawing of a Mexican sugar skull, because Christmas was coming and his wife collects everything with sugar skulls. This would make a great present, but it couldn’t be to pricy. We worked together for a couple of years, so why not? I made his a really cool sugar skull with a great 3d effect for only 500 dollar.
A few weeks later I discovered he arranged an exhibition in Amsterdam in which he offered the sugarskull for 3000 dollar.
I laughed so hard I fell into this classic trick. Beautiful!

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The biggest lie is to become achieve your goals and become an independent artist. That is only for a handful of people. Most of the artists out there are ruining their lives doing this.
If you become fully indepent there is a sudden pressure of creating art all the time. And the pressure of constantly selling art, which can be difficicult, because you have to build and extremely large network.
And when you are a artist you have to sell really really REALLY well, because you can’t get a loan anymore to buy a house (you are not trustworthy for banks) and your insucrance will skyrocket.

My tip is: ALways start out with a solid job on the side, which doesn’t take to much time and provide you with a bit of money. This way the pressure is a lot less, you’ll have less stress and instead of your insurance skyrocketing, your creativity will skyrocket.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What will you regret not doing? 
I love travelling. I regret every country I haven’t visited.
I love the creativity of a good cook, so I also regret every restaurant I haven’t tried.
I love guitars, so I regret every guitar I haven’t bought.

Luckely I enjoy the thing I am doing more that all the regrets I could have

Contact Info:

Image Credits
All images are made by me and are free to use

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