Visual artist big escape to broaden, network and inspire

Byron eksteen Start Date: Nov 24, 2024 - End Date: Mar 23, 2025
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Vacation/Personal Trip
  • New York, NY, United States of America

My Travel Story

by: Byron eksteen Start Date: Nov 24, 2024 - End Date: Mar 23, 2025
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Vacation/Personal Trip
I am an artist from South Africa that was invited to the US to continue on pursuing my carrier in the creative arts. I did not imagine that i would be given such an opportunity as when I applied for the visa as I intended it to be just a month trip. After viewing my application and accomplishments the American visa consulate decided to grant me a visa that allows me to practice my trade in America for ten years *but within six months at a time. Part of what made that decision possible was due to the fact that I sold two prominent paintings to movie producers in LA that I met in Cape Town and prior to that I was chosen to be the lead graffiti artists for the new Gore Verbiski film 'Good Luck, Have Fun, and Dont Die' which was shot in Cape Town. The crew HODs were from LA and they greatly encouraged me to go America and so I applied.

Once that was approved I took a great plunge and decided to make the brave move aboard. I started the trip in LA as I was invited to live with the person who bought one of my paintings for a week. After that stay I I was on my own on the quest to figure out the city, to gain, create and inspire. It was extremely challenging as I did not know anything about the city and the culture. That being said I still managed to find my way and managed to make sure I was creating paintings that described my process thoughts and experience. With regards to the creation process I came to a brick wall in relation to finding and moving into a studio. That was due to the fact that all the places in LA that I could work in required a one year lease agreement. And so my solution was to take my canvas and lay them out on public tables and paint in public. It worked out as I filmed the process of creating in the with the environments I chose and that made videos very interesting other than filming myself working a studio surrounded by white walls.

During my stay in LA I managed to make some good friends that are apart of the film industry and I was invited to many cultural events such as film screenings and such. Yet stay in LA came to an end after some one encourage me to go to New York stating that New York will better accommodate me as an artist and what I aim to achieve that and the people in NYC could benefit from my skills and vision.

I then took another leap and moved to New York. I find the city to be very inspirational and promising as the art world is much bigger and it is easy to move around in. I am also gaining a lot of interest with professionals in my industry with the people I meet that feel inspired by my philosophies, artwork, way of being. More so they are inspired by the courage it takes by leaping into the unknown to develop, inspire create and to become apart of the bigger global picture. Apart from the paintings I have been doing I was have been drawing my environment and in particular jazz musicians playing live while recording the process and creating videos.

I am an artist, poet and thinker that is on a massively inspiring yet at times very scary trip in order to grow, develop, inspire and contribute to the bigger picture. This is the beginning of creating a path leading towards abundance allowing me to reach the responsibilities I have as a creator within myself and the communities I am involved in. Being given the chance to be in New York is a dream that I never thought would be possible esp coming from a small town in a third world country. I come from humble upbringing and life has placed me into extreme situations that I have had to work hard to over come. South Africa is an amazing beautiful country yet it does not offer such a great current of opportunities for what I do and what I want to achieve in comparison to America and New York.
  • New York, NY, United States of America

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