Jorge Burtin
According to artist Jorge Burtin, of Laguna Beach, California, “Art separates man from nature. It exists for its own purpose. Pixaic, the art form
I created, is its own reason for being.”
He explains, “Every one of us today sat in front of an electronic screen. The image was created by millions of pixels lit up by beams of electrons. I wanted to tell our story of how we acquired our news and entertainment. We perceive the world by our minds creating images of glowing dots. Our children’s children will not fathom this world. I tell stories of us by telling the tale of who came before. Mosaics and even micro-mosaics where used to tell stories [such as in the work of] Georges Seurat and his points of pigment.”
Burtin wanted to capture individual points of light with glass and paint in a new way. He conferred with artists working with stained glass about how to make cubes of glass. “They said [it was] impossible. That’s always a good starting point,” the artist says. “Many attempts later I was able to break glass into cubes. The only way glass can be cubed is by hand. Every piece is scored and broken by hand. Then hand placed in the Pixaic.” A typical painting has more than 40,000 pieces, Burtin shares, adding, “Your car has about 2,500.”
With every Pixaic he creates, Burtin wants to tell a story that appeals to the intellect and moves the emotions. “I try and take the ordinary parts of our day and reconstruct the image into a message that is perceived by our minds and souls,” he notes. “Pixaics are glass paintings that will last eons of time. This is the tale of us presented to future generations to witness our brief moment in time.”
Burtin will exhibit his work July 5 to September 1 at the Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach.