ACT/DUTCH– BIO
ACT started as the initials I placed on a wall for a brief period during my teenage years. After fiddling with the name Dracoola at first, I saw a trend around me that was using three letters, which had “deeper meaning”. A-C-T was a logical choice as my identity as teenager was that guy who wanted to be an actor. To clear my name of anybody else’s use of these three letters, the last time I put it on a wall was back in 2004.
The next time I touched a spray can was 2011. I was in theater school and wanted to make a rebellious appearance in one of our performances. I decided on a unibomber thing with some paint. The performance never worked out but it did get me thinking about what I had to say. Two years later I made my first painting. ACT has a lot of meanings. An ACT – a deed or statement. To ACT – to do or undertake. An ACT - a performance or part of a play/story. I have always wanted to encourage people to think for themselves, to change the world, to ACT. So when I made “Celeb.Rate.Life”, one of my favorites about the meaning of celebrity, I decided to remind the viewer to ACT, with my signature. Doing is risky. Thinking is dangerous. Art is in the eye of the beholder. Art is allowing you to think a deeper thought. Art creates triumph. Tommy.Bowtie - BIO
Tommy Bowtie first arrived in a painting called “Tragedy”. I wanted a dude, a giant dude, to sit next to this burning building. Now, Im not a skilled artist, like those awesome guys and girls who can make things look pretty. I went with 2 eyes and a line mouth. But of course this way, he looks straight at the spectator. And that’s always odd.
Think of pictures of war scenes, disaster scenes, where someone is holding a loved one and looking into the camera, crying. Some people might look at that and say: “that’s awful”. I always thought: why isn’t the camera(wo)man helping this person, instead of selling a newspaper. And in a way that’s what Tommy is to me. He’s that person that’s looking into the camera with tears in his eyes. He is the sadness in the world. Maybe he’s a little bit of me. I can be a bit of a Debby Downer sometimes. That sounds really depressing. Maybe it is really depressing. Eye of the beholder again, I guess. I don’t consider my works depressing. I hope you don’t. that’s not the kind of artist I wish to be. In the end Tommy is a silly character in a tux. And I love him. |