Greg Mason Burns

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  • Do You Understand Art
    Do You Understand Art is the fourth in a series of guests posts by my collectors and fans. In this post, Nivea Bona reflects on how art makes us feel something and how we try to rationalize that even when there’s no need to do so. Below, Bona shares how this notion challenged her in other parts of her life, and I challenge you to tell me which side I lean toward: intent or in-the-moment emotion. Do You Understand Art – By Nivea Bona Yesterday I had another psychotherapy session that handed me annoying insights. It is funny how we…
  • Portland Head Light
    Portland Head Light – Watercolor on Paper – 4″x6″ This is the third in a series of guest posts by my collectors. This post, made by Cynthia Passos, explores the meaning of the dominant lighthouse in Casco Bay, Maine: Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth. The author both owns this piece and has visited the lighthouse. She states an inspirational connection between her, me and my wife, and the lighthouse itself. The text below is the English translation. You can find the original Portuguese below that. English Version Lighthouses enchant me, in general, for their symbology of light and direction:…
  • Tamanduá
    This is the second of what I hope to be many guest posts on my artwork. Nivea Bona wrote the first, titled,  A Painted Tree is a Whole Moment, and can be seen here. The painting noted to the left, is now in the home of two collectors from Brazil: Wilson “Xixo” Ramos Filho and his wife Veridiana “Veri” Marques Moserle. I gave it as a gift in exchange for some work that Veri had done for my wife in Brazil, and as it hung in their New York apartment, Xixo lamented that he felt he knew the location of…
  • How to Write an Artist Grant (from the perspective of a grant reviewer)
    How to write an artist grant is a difficult question to answer. Artists are good at making art, not doing administrative funding tasks. Yes, I’m an artist. I’ve written a lot of grants and I’ve only succeeded once. That’s probably not a great score, but that’s more to do with competition than anything else. I’m also a grant reviewer who is lucky enough to have gotten a behind-the-scenes look at what a good grant looks like. I wrote an article for the Maine Arts Journal on my experience as a grant reviewer to help artists navigate this tricky realm. To…
  • A Painted Tree is a Whole Moment.
    This is a guest post by Nivea Bona. It is the first in a series of posts by people who are champions of my art. In this post, Bona makes a link between how we care for and see trees and art in our lives. It is based on a trip to Italy where the above painting, A Tree in Tenno, was first imagined. A painted tree is not only a tree. Nor is it art. It is a whole moment. A tree.  Have you ever thought of how many trees you see every day? Do you pay attention to…
  • Public Art Commission: Kennebec Valley Community College – Fairfield, ME
    These are the murals I created for Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, ME (KVCC) via the Percent for Art Program run by the Maine Arts Commission. They are of a stained-glass style and represent the tools, trades, workers, and landmarks of the area and the school’s academic program. My murals in Brunswick, ME received a lot of great feedback due to their color and stained-glass concept. I decided to expand on this concept and apply for several other projects. This KVCC project was actually my first competitive commission where I won the contract. In August of 2022, I was…
  • Truth and Lies
    Before he wrote The Wealth of Nations, in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith pontificated something extreme with regards to charity. He roughly stated that we don’t know the difference between making ourselves feel good and “doing it for God” when being charitable towards other humans. This got him into some trouble with the church. It was only a little trouble because he had sprinkled in enough references to “God” to keep him safe. Smith had learned from his friend David Hume’s failures. Hume didn’t lie, and society severely punished him both academically and socially. Adam Smith…
  • A New Website Means Free Art
    Want to get a free piece of art? Read this blog post to learn how, and you’ll be adding or even starting your very own art collection before you know it.
  • Experiments in Watercolor: Diversity in Luminosity
      Experiments in Watercolor: Diversity in Luminosity, is a seven-artist exhibit that I have both curated and am in as an artist. The show runs at the UMVA Gallery at 516 Congress Street in Portland, Maine for the month of May, 2022. The artists, including me, are: Alan Crichton, Arthur Nichols, Liz Prescott, Rabee Kiwan, Ed Nadeau, and Jack Silverio. I created this exhibit as an attempt to show how watercolor has many varieties of work. I believe most people think of watercolor as great washes of landscapes and portraits. But I have often worked in the abstract, and many…
  • Cityscape Series: Behind the Paintings
    These cityscape paintings are some of the first that I did as an artist. It is not a coincidence that I created them when I first moved to Brazil. There’s a huge difference between small-town Maine and big-city Brazil, and it’s not the type of difference you get between small towns and big cities anywhere. I had lived in several cities before moving to Brazil, but the level of caution that I needed to exercise with regards to violence was vastly different in Brazil than those other cities. I went from a sense confidence in being calm to always on…