Conversation Pieces – With Theo Burzynski

Theo Burzynski is a world traveler, a man of many rich adventures.

He has seen wonders that few will ever have the opportunity to see, and those are the places and moments that inspire his work. Burzynski takes little pieces of everywhere he has been with him in his spirit. “It’s just an energy,” he says of the inspiration he feels when he connects with a special place. “It’s a vibe that you’re in tune with, like you’re a neon sign and someone plugs you in. You’re there and you know you’re supposed to be there.” Still, there’s no going back and recreating those places in the physical – their memories are for the canvas. “Nothing is ever as good as it was the first time, but there are always new adventures,” Theo says.

The first time I met Theo, he was entering back into the creative arts after an eleven year sabbatical. He had felt a major shift within himself, and within the world, and there was too much to be said through words. He was filled with an enthusiasm, almost on fire, to return to his first love, something pure in the midst of a very tumultuous time.

It was somewhere in late 2020. His personal renaissance began as “the result of several factors, all coming together to create this perfect storm,” he recalls. “Leaving corporate America to work for myself. Finishing the renovation of my house, and then Covid. All of a sudden, I had lots of time and lots of creative energy to spare. I had no choice but to start painting – family members, beaches, friends. My style picked up where I had left off the eleven years prior.”

We spoke about his visions, experiences, and plans for his art. His persona was a juxtaposition. He was at the same time of an unusual toughness, a guarded-yet-exposed vulnerability and refinement. He had a complexity about him that matched the scope and style of his subjects.

One of the first series I had the opportunity to see was a beach series. The work, for me, was nostalgic and wonderful. The colors were a portal into my fondest memories of childhood summers spent at the beach, and the smell of the oil on canvas was like breathing in creativity itself. It was a sensory explosion of the best things I remember.

Theo’s stories are like the oceans in his work, filled with depth and beauty. It’s not just places from his travels that find new life in his creations, there are the people who etch themselves into the artist’s heart and mind, the ones who bring magic to those private moments, moments so fleeting that they have to be remembered through art.

For Theo, “life is a fleeting glimpse that becomes a hazy memory and is then gone. [These people we meet in life] should be captured and preserved. A big part of that is not just capturing a likeness but capturing the magic.” I had imagined that the figures were past lovers – most of their poses were too intimate, too sweet, or flirtatious to be anything else. They are the ordinary moments of exceptional beauty.

For example, in “One in a Million,” a woman stands sun kissed in a white bikini, playfully peeking over her sunglasses to catch the viewer’s gaze. Theo explains that, in some cases, they are indeed former lovers. But not all of them.

“The other half are just people I know. I mix and match, swap out heads and bodies to better fit the composition,” he explains. He doesn’t necessarily choose a muse, instead pulling together an organic mashup of memory. Sometimes, those mashups spin into stylings from surrealism, pop art, and can even seem a little otherworldly. Those memories stick in the subconscious, then burst into a visual within Theo’s imagination. Sketches, studies, color experimentations mixing into imagination are all part of his process. The challenge for Burzynski is “going too far or not far enough.” He says giving himself the freedom to “do it and if I wreck it, do it again” is the best way for him to work through his challenges. His advice for young artists is to, “Create art that makes you happy, makes you feel good, that makes you anxious, makes you cry. Don’t be boring.”

Theo’s subjects are always shifting, millions of moments bursting into eternal memories for the viewer to submerge themselves into. Never to be defined.

Theo’s work originally started for his personal collection, but recently he has been branching out with a series of showings throughout Columbus. On October 21, Theo will be hosting his own exhibit of works, that have been created in 2023. “It’s not a fancy thing,” he says. “Just a small gathering of friends, peers and anyone who likes art to come and hang out, talk and see all the girls in person. It’s one thing to see them on social media or photos, but in real life they have an energy I want to share.” The event will be held at Heritage Art Center (102 6th Street).

To see more of his work, visit his Instagram and Facebook @theoz.art.

By Karen Renee