The Burtonesque Influence
My Take on Tim Burton
After Playtime...Critique
It's been a while...
I'm returning to the podcast with a conversation about artist and director Tim Burton, who has been a huge influence on my as an artist and creator. A lot of this episode is about my personal relationship with his work, but I also share a bit of his life history and his influences.
This was a bit of a departure in the fact I did not make a full outline and just trusted myself to share what needed to be shared. So it is not as polished or perfect and a lot more personal than many of my previous episodes. With Tim Burton as the glue that holds this conversation together.
Below you will find lots of things to dig into to discover more about Tim Burton and the things I mentioned in the episode.
Listen in at the link below and then explore the curated content. Reach out to me and let me know your thoughts on Tim Burton, the episode...influence and whatever else at Starling Art Studios
Tim Burton's Moma Show
Burton on Burton
Stalk of The Celery Monster
Vincent
Frankenweenie
Some Articles & Links To Explore
Starling Art Studios
Creative Meditations: Magical Makings
Takeaways From Tim Burton:
- What tools can you pull from your imagination and fantasy world that will help you process things in your own reality? For Tim Burton he created characters that could work through issues he needed to understand. He built worlds and creatures, shadows and so that gave meaning and purpose to his existence. How are you doing that in your creative practice? Side note…if you have not looked at his book of sketches and stories The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy…give it a look. Something like that would be an easy fun way to pull some of those things through for your exploration.
- Trust your own style. Everyone gets influence from someone else….but trust yourself and your natural inclinations. They will not point you in the wrong direction. Burton could not do Disney cute and it is a good thing he couldn’t or he would not have had the career he had. He could not have built the Burtonesque style and become the creator he is if he had settled for copying popular styles. Play your own hand.
- Know your strengths and look for collaborators - Tim Burton understands what he is good at and where he needs help. Which makes him able to build such impressive collaborations. He has never written a screenplay, he only creates the characters…he looks for others who can help him bring his visions and ideas into being and seems to know that to do that will take a full team of people. He has obviously found individuals who get his vision and communicate from a similar realm. Like Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp. Really seeing how it takes a tribe to bring a world into being, and that the work is not for one lonely mortal to create is refreshing. While Burton gets credit for this vision he works with lighting directors, costume designers, screenwriters, actors and editors to get his films created. He is no lone creative genius….as that idea is a myth. As creators we must know what we are good at and bring to the table and look for others that can build with us. How are you at collaboration? How could you work with others to create something amazing not possible alone?
- Influence has a flow of its own. Realizing how we are all products of influences, that had their own influence, that had there’s, and so on….we begin to see all these overlaps and connections. Sometimes they are obvious and sometimes it takes time to really realize how big those connections truly are. Sometimes we want to deny them or pretend we came up with it on our own. But all ideas, no matter how genius or trivial can be traced through others that came before us. I knew Tim Burton was an influence on me, but only realized recently that things I though I discovered on my own like Frankenstein and German expressionism and so on actually came through his influences. Who has influenced you? Not only in your art style but in your interests? Are they ways you have not connected yet that these sources have played a role in your life?
- Failure is part of the process. While I struggled through some of his less impressive works, I see it as part of his process as an artist. A process that is still in progress even though he is 63 years old. I’m not ruling out that he has more good work in there. Knowing that failure happens helps me appreciate my own shortcoming and failures as part of my process. Cause lord knows I have a lot of less public failures. How have your failures helped you? Have people you looked up to failed in ways you can learn from? What can you take from witnessing imperfections in others? Sometime those things make them more human and give us more insight into life as a process that can be messy…but interesting.
- If age is but a number….what do you want for your old age? Seeing a lot of the people I looked up to age now. Some are doing it so well and some make me sad as they chase youth in a way that demeans them. What do you hope to have cultivated in your 60s, 70s and 80s. Is it about keeping up appearances maintaining the vision of your youth or is it something different? Will you keep reinventing yourself, cling to the persona you created or turn inward so much the external world won’t matter?
Playlist: Tim Burton Inspired
Student Work
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