If you know my works you will see that I throw everything in a stick blender and put my signature under it Every now and then someone goes off. Usually another faulty 'artist'. And I get it. You think huh?! That's a Looney Tune or hey that's Selwyn Senatori, oh no not! It's Hans Breuker. Well, who does he think he is!
I think about that sometimes.
Copyright is important to protect creatives. If you copy someone 1 on 1 and you put your name under it. Then that's not okay. Needs no explanation. But listen. There are so many creatives and so much art is made. It's very difficult to be really original. Moreover. Not everyone wants to be original. Or even make real 'art', whatever that is.
To do
Ever since I can remember I have had a tendency to express myself. A crazy feeling inside me. That's nice! I don't know if other people have that too, but I can imagine that creative people have that.
So I really have to get something out of it. Whether it's a novella, a book, marketing ideas, children's books, illustrations, comics, canvases or merchandise… Apparently I have that need to make things.
Andy Warhol
The things I like to watch are a mix of pop culture. Early in the century I read Andy Warhol's biography. Master dude. He also started with pop art but Liechtenstein did better. He switched his style and made art from everyday objects. It is over.
I remember a quote from an acquaintance of Andy's. He and Andy went to dinner with Andy's mother and she put the Campbell's soup on the table. 'What an act!', thought Andy's acquaintance. But what turned out is that they really always ate that soup. Andy just painted what he knew. What was familiar to him, and that was revolutionary.
For Warhol, financial independence was an important motivator. Critics thought it was far too commercial. Especially in the seventies. So you see that there is always friction in the creative world between commerciality and 'authenticity'.
Although Andy (I think) could draw really cool. He started out as a shoe drawer, but also illustrated an insect book, I believe. Andy always looked for easy ways to make his art. He projected his subjects and just traced it with pencil and paint! And his screen prints were often simply conceived and made by his assistants. But his name underneath made the prints valuable.
Andy made most of his money through commissions.
Back to me!
Just kidding.
Keep it real! When I started with graffiti I practiced endlessly on the letters just to fit in. Sure, every writer has his own style. But the New York style of CES, for example, is leading. Logically, that's where the art originally comes from.
I also thought that everyone looked down on each other that way. The guys who copied that style well were cool, and if you weren't as good, or came up with things yourself, you didn't belong. At the time I was looking for creativity (and also recognition) but for me personally the scene was even too ego-loving and aggressive. Where you would think that writers admire and like each other, I often found a hateful atmosphere hanging around. But I can understand that you enjoy it. If you continuously put your own name on everything, you want to let them know that you are there and that you are the king of the street.
My motivation is to do what I like and to earn a lot of money with it. Because money means freedom. Oh. And of course it's fucking cool to make something that someone else will love and even hang on their wall!!
The copyright protection
To quote Selwyn Senatori, for example. He paints because he also has that creative inspiration, it wants to be expressed. But he also just wants to make some good money. There is a whole team around him, an assistant and the people of Kunsthuizen, his 'agents'. That's just a business. The product is what he makes, the brand is his name. LITERAL. Because if you offer a painting on Marktplaats with the title; in the style of Selwyn Senatori you will be removed because you then use his brand name.
And there is the sweet spot! If you present yourself as a brand, you are a product. And if you are a product you can be copied and that is motherfucking capitalism my friend.
When there is suddenly a need for steel doors invented by Henk. Will the market be making steel doors? One with a thick profile, the other with glass and another with milk glass.
Sad for Hank? Perhaps. But Hank was the first. Usually you want the first. The best known. But there is enough for everyone.
The value of art
And now I'm getting where I wanted to go. Why does art have to be so expensive? I find a painting worth €3,000 really obscene. (PS I so hope that in 5 years I will have to correct myself here and defend myself why my canvases cost 3k! hahahah)
If I make a painting in two hours. And I get € 150 for that I'm reasonably satisfied. My goal is €500 per canvas. That would be master. Especially if I can continue with my 'production' of 1 painting a day (are you counting? )
That the value of Senatori's work (or enter another artist here) is so high is because he is a brand. O lord, the irony. If you present yourself as a brand and turn it into a business, everything is fair game.
Are you an artistic person who works on art in a certain way. Makes people think about things, make them feel something or challenge existing dogmas. Then I don't think that money is the motivation. And if money is the motivation, the business. Is alles fair game. Ka.Pi.Ta.Li.SME!
And of course I'm not going to copy 1 on 1 shit. But everything I think of has already been thought of. Am I not going to do it then? And come! Where does the Puritan idea that in art everything must be original come from? Stop it.
I'm just a plumber man
A plumber charges around € 65 per hour. My paintings yield less per hour. I feel comfortable in that comparison. The link with Super Mario also explained again. More the labor than the artistic. The canvases, the prints, the merchandise as a product. And me as a maker.
Higher prices for Hansie Hansie!
Now, of course, I have to become a brand. Because only then can the price go up! I have ideas about that. And I'm going to do it! Because I'm done sitting in front of a computer. I want out! Experience things. Adventure. Nice man. I want to be in town. I miss that. Have a nice tour. You won't get more famous behind my desk and behind the easel. And to make stupid Tik Tok videos all day long… Feel like a clown then. Anyway. Maybe I should get over that too...
I wrote this in the night from Thursday to Friday between 4:30 and 6:00 am. I woke up because I drank too much red wine. Apparently this had to come out. I will lie down next to my beautiful wife and hopefully sleep for 2 hours. Thanks for reading if you've come this far. Whoo am I?