BRANDON BOYD | OPTIMYSTIC
12-01-2017
Los Angeles, CA
Written by Baha Danesh
Featuring Brandon Boyd
On December 1st, Incubus frontman and visual artist Brandon Boyd hosted “OptiMystic,” a pop-up shop and gallery that showcased his artwork in addition to artists Tasya van Ree, Natalie Bergman, and Diana Garcia.
The pop-up shop and gallery was held inside 101 Exhibit; a trendy two-story white wall gallery located within the heart of West Hollywood. The upstairs shop featured OptiMystic tote bags, t-shirts, and books that combined Brandon’s artwork, photography and creative writings. Downstairs the gallery featured a full-throttle showcase that pushed beyond the boundaries of contemporary and abstract art.
While eager fans observed works of art created by each artist, Brandon graciously greeted fans with autographs and pictures. His pug Bruce also joined in on the fun by striking a pose for his own fan club.
Brandon’s watercolor drawings and experimental paintings created a sense of serendipity and mystery throughout the gallery. His multidisciplinary approach of creation allows each viewer to discover their own narrative of beauty and chaos.
His ability to reveal a visual style that focuses on curiosity left us wanting to know more and although Brandon was busy extending the pop-up show with the help of Jen Disisto of Art Duet, we were able to sneak in a couple questions and dive into the OptiMystic world of Brandon Boyd.
Baha Danesh:
Tell us about your paintings located at OptiMystic. Is there a message you want to leave with the viewers?
Brandon Boyd:
The paintings that I did for OptiMystic were merely attempts at diving further into a process that has been slowly at work in me for a few years now. Watercolor studies of people in moments meeting dizzied, chaotic lines. I’m sure there is some deeper symbolism at play here but I’d like to leave that to the observer to interpret. The wordplay with OptiMystic is sort of an attempt to remind myself that most things are a matter of perception and that how we perceive the world is more often than not a reflection of ourselves than it is a reflection of an objective reality. Hence the need to interject a little hope and magic into our ideas. An optimism laced with something deeper.
Danesh:
Describe your artistic process, do you have any rituals or artistic habits you must hone in on before painting?
Boyd:
My process is probably not too dissimilar from another artist’s process. With some variations, I’m sure. I wander and muse and tinker and analyze, then almost out of nowhere I feel an overwhelming urge to write it down, hum a melody, pick up a guitar or begin pushing lines around on paper or paint onto canvas. It’s almost like a song, inaudible to everyone else, begins to play and repeats in my mind until I surrender and start to dance to it.
Danesh:
How is your personality reflected in your art?
Boyd:
Good question! I have no idea.
Danesh:
And finally, this is We Choose Art’s famous question, why do you choose art? What allows you to continue?
Boyd:
I choose art because our culture of “results” has been kind of destructive to me, and to find something that allows for a spontaneous process to emerge and to thrive feels more like walking with the wind. I’ve been blessed with some wonderful results and fruits of deeper process’ but the process itself within art has been an incredible reward. Like building a house and having the time of your life hammering away and painting walls, then having the fact that you now have a place to live be merely an icing on an already delicious cake.
Brandon’s OptiMystic pop-up shop and gallery ran through December 10th and each day hundreds of fans visited the gallery. If you missed this opportunity to visit the store you can still do so by visiting the OptiMystic shop online or wait until the next time Brandon and the Art Duet team hit the road again.
For information visit BrandonBoyd.me and click “shop” for his online store.
Photographed by Baha H. Danesh.
