We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Swartz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

My brother and I work with very bright colors and have a very energetic style. This has lead a lot of people to assume we’re psychedelic artists and use drugs to find our inspiration. It can get rather tiring to explain that while we have both used drugs in the past, including psychedelics, they are by no means are the driving force behind our creativity and artistic practice. It’s funny, I’ve actually been in recovery for 4 years now and my brother Jon rarely uses substances now. I’ve found that while drugs can be used as tools we have both wildly misused them and both found that they actually hinder our creatively and hold us back artistically.

That’s been a tough assumption to live with as it can feel insulting when our creativity and passion is boiled down and contributed to taking acid. However, I also see it as a compliment that people are like “wow there’s no way someone could be this creative without drugs!” so I suppose it’s all how you look at it.

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

My brother Jon and myself (David) are both painters. We’ve been artists since we were little kids, growing up drawing comic book characters and anime. We’ve found a rather interesting style that mixes nature, human form, street art, surrealism, and a splash of bright color. We call it eccentric!

I think what makes our artwork unique is the approach we take to channeling our emotions into the work. We believe art can be an amazing outlet for powerful emotions, whether they be painful or pleasant. The end result is a painting that leaves us with less emotional baggage and can give the viewer insight into themselves. There have been a lot of instances where people have seen things in our work that give us insight in to ourselves that we were unaware of. The back and forth, and mutual benefit art creates is my favorite aspect of creating.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think the thing that surprises people the most is that the creative process can be horribly painful and tortuous. There are a lot of ups and downs when painting, and I often end the day feeling like a total failure and a fraud. There’s plenty of really rewarding aspects to creating as well, but it can be a struggle a lot of days just to convince myself to pick up the brush.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I think they are a wonderful way for digital artists to sell original pieces. I also really love the smart contracts that allow artists to get a percentage of the resale value of their work. I think it’s a really interesting approach to art in the modern age. As a physical artist I’ve found it hard to break into that space, but I think there’s some creative solutions for us as well. I know some physical artists have used a NFT as a certificate of authenticity to accompany the physical painting which I think is really cool. Over all I’m excited to see where it evolves to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://swartzbrothersart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swartzbrothersart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwartzBrothersArt