Creativity and Social Media

Gaby Zwaan, @gaby407, is a Dutch artist who uses social media not only to brand himself as a brilliant painter, but also to get inspired, and be part of cool (social) projects. He gained fame in the art world with his paintings during the Tour de France: Lance Armstrong looking back to see his portrait on the streets.

Digital inspiration for an offline painter

I am an artist, I am a painter, and I don’t work digitally. I do however use the internet a lot. For one, it’s a place where I get part of my inspiration from, and where I can see what’s happening in the world of cool people. My art is not about nature, but it’s about the pop culture all around us, and where better to find it than online. Me and go way back – to when we did not even call it ‘social media’ yet. The way I was handling my weblog felt the same as the way I’m handling my social media. I play theTwitter and Facebook game at this moment, and Google+ is in my portfolio, but I’m not seeing what extra it offers yet.

I do not really “use” social media for anything that I plan out. I see social media as my way of letting the world (or at least that part that likes my work) see and feel what it is like being an artist. Just like how Van Gogh wrote letters to his brother to tell him how he was doing. I see social media in the same way. One day my tweets will be next to my paintings in a gallery, and later in a museum, just like Van Gogh’s letters are now; at least, that’s what I would like to think. I believe social media is part of my DNA.

Social media brought me confirmation and confidence

It’s bringing me new things every week: from a cool project at Seats2meet, where I did a whole meeting room in GabyGaby style, to a little kid from Japan telling me he likes my work. From a gallery in Canada that tells me they might want to show my work, to a tweet that I send out to the CMO of Kodak, and that got my GabyGaby on tour project (painted 11 paintings on the mountains of the Tour de France) sponsored.

Although I don’t sell my work through social media directly, and so in that sense, have never made money through social media, through and because of social media, people have gotten to get to know the GabyGaby style and my work. My contacts with galleries / projects / brands mostly begin with social media. I could not do what I do today if it was not for social media!

Inspirer

I see it as a communicator and not as an inspirer. I go and find my inspiration in other ways… I’m never exactly sure how my brain finds what it finds, but it’s not from the stuff I read or click on in social media. I immediately get feedback on new pieces, I can share my struggles with inspiration and sometimes creativity; it’s easy to share with the world what you’re up to and what’s on your mind. I think that is an amazing step forward!

I don’t think I have a private or business side. I’m just a human called GabyGaby, and whatever I do, I tweet. It all has to do with me as a person. People start understanding the process of an idea, painting and the final result.

World Champion Art

My goal is to become a world champion in art… I don’t really know what that means, but I know I still have a long way to go… That makes me fight and work even harder to try and get there. Social media is a tool that helps me get a little bit closer to that goal.