We recently connected with Anthony Bertram and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I never saw myself pursuing oil pastel as my primary art medium but at this point it’s hard to imagine using anything else. I had always found them to be so distinctly messy & never ever finished a piece without smudging (which killed me) but the same things that made it scary also always secretly made it exciting to me? In spite of this, I stuck with painting for YEARS and pushed myself in acrylic, watercolor & even spit shading. I had amassed a large body of work and was happy with the direction I was headed but after some pretty sudden life changes found myself completely uprooted with no room to make or house any physical art – sleeping on my friend’s pool table for 6 months – no car – painting exclusively off my iPad. To avoid completely losing my mind I spent every single day refining my art style through digital art, exploring a looser technique in an attempt to make my art pop off the screen or feel “real” to me. I wanted to obsess over something and give myself entirely to it but felt a disconnect with the iPad and a lack of excitement towards painting. I randomly stumbled across a few oil pastel artists on Instagram & began watching them religiously. It was so mind blowing seeing what they could achieve and I wanted it. I felt inspired to take on this medium that had always felt kind of impossible to me and at that point, I didn’t really have anything to lose. Within a few months, I moved myself into a tiny studio apartment and spent the entire next year locked inside those four walls (which I had covered in 12” x 18” sheets of watercolor paper) living, breathing and eating oil pastel. I completely threw myself into the messiness of the process and fell in love with everything about it. I loved the color of the dust on my fingers and the waxy clumps on the paper, rubbing pigments into different shades and snapping the chalk-like sticks when I applied too much pressure. I felt completely free in this new medium & completely alive in learning it from scratch. With the new techniques & looser mentality I had learned from my digital art, I created around 40 pieces in the span of 12 months – showing 14 of them off in a solo exhibition the following year. I’ve been doing oil pastel art for around 3 years now and would say I am still learning / will probably continue learning for the rest of my life. If you have any desire to give it a shot, please do! It’s really never too late to learn something new.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Of course! My name is Anthony Bertram, I’m a Tucson based artist who specializes in oil pastel & digital art. I draw my inspiration through film, music videos & our universal human ability to see faces in everything (a phenomenon known as Pareidolia). I’ve found my process is most at flow with less preparation, finding my faces in the canvas & skipping any formal sense of outline. I’ve worked in human / character subject matter for over 20 years now and have specialized in oil pastel for the last 3. When I’m not occupied with art, you’ll find me at the movie theatre with my girlfriend, watching deep dive YouTube videos at home or listening to music from bands like Provoker, The Strokes & Brutalismus 3000. You can find more of my work on Instagram “@viperlounge” or at various locations around Tucson such as Cartel Coffee Lab on Broadway, Dandelion Cafe or at Warm Shape in the Mercado District where I have prints & pins for purchase.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I feel like I have to keep finding new ways to impress myself or I’ll lose my mind. I am such a hyper-obsessive person and can never just like, chill when it comes to my art. I want so desperately for every new project to be cooler / more engaging than my last and 100% see that as my driving force. It can be very difficult for me to celebrate present moments because I am always thinking about the next thing but I just know there is SO MUCH more to explore. I want to be as great as the things that blow me away, you know?

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Getting to be a piece of the pie! I credit like 99% of every cool thing I’ve ever made to the incredible movies, shows, paintings and songs I’ve been able to consume in my life. Making art is like my own way of getting to put something back into the mix & feel like I’m a part of that creative hivemind.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: viperlounge

Image Credits

Vanessa Bertram, Carli Gargiulo