Yes, it's an artist's youth again...
Game computers used to draw me to the Red Light District as English tourists. With my great imagination it was really a wonderful world. I totally lost myself. Also because we didn't have one at home, I played with friends on the Nintendo. Especially Super Mario 3. Later (probably after much nagging) I got a Super Nintendo with Super Mario World.
The first #Moneymario from 2019
I was playing the latest Mario with my sister and a wave of different memories washed over me. And that experience of those memories
kept trickling in and resulted in a painting about Mario. When I paint that Mario my feelings and thoughts go back to that time of my
youth from the age of 8 or 9. Not only do those memories take me back to my childhood imagining and sketching the canvases too! Because I did that endlessly. Copying Disney characters, comics and GI Joe figures.
The new kid in Town
Coin$ Coin$ Coin$ Coin$
What also struck me is that Nintendo chose to reward Mario with coins in the game. Not hearts, fruits, lead pipes for his plumbing business or anything else. No, we ran and jumped like crazy to collect the coins. You understand the comparison to ordinary life…
Mario is always on the hunt for coins. That goes (pun intended) of course for many, the fast race for the coins. For myself, it also portrays the constant struggle between ego (showing that you are financially successful) and creativity. Am I making art because of the coins? Or creative exploration? Andy Warhol, Roy Liechtenstein, Keith Haring, Banksy, Alec Monopoly and Selwyn Senatori are great sources of inspiration for me. I borrow from all of them. And they in turn borrow from commerce and from each other. As I said, I have always had a strong urge to express myself, in the past it was graffiti and later mainly drawings. Now that my life is financially reasonable, the urge to make, write and paint things keeps coming back. If you look at my examples, they are all fascinated by commerce and they are all successful. Since the beginning of painting I've been looking for a figure that can play a leading role in my work, and the MoneyMario has become that (now), and I'm having a great fucking time.
Plumber
Unlike the Bad Boys of Senatori or the rich Monopoly man of Alec Andon, Mario is an ordinary, cheerful plumber who has to save the princess. I'm far from a plumber (clumsy and impatient as anything) but I can empathize more with the middle class than drinking the champagne upperclass.
Get motivated
The works should also portray a great inspiration, it should motivate and make the viewer happy. Not just to collect money as
goal in itself but if you look at my work you must be touched by the creativity of that message, the coin$ stand for luck in the constant on
pursuit of fulfilling your destiny. The collection of coins represents the small steps to spiritual growth. For me, every painting and every street art poster is a coin that contributes to the big picture.
my art out there to motivate the viewer. And if I succeed in getting that message across, but also in making a living from it, it has acquired a double meaning, namely that I have succeeded in achieving my goal with art, which means that it CAN.
Then the motivation around the #MoneyMario is complete.
Do you want to order a #MOneyMario on the wall or a custom canvas? Enter your details below. Or you can also call 020 – 261 94 05.
