THE STARTUP ARTIST 

Emily   Lauren  Burg

I am an AbEx painter inspired by Color-Field painting and the Ninth Street women of the New York School of the 1950s, not just because I lived at 60 East 9th Street, which is where the 9th Street Art Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture was held 45 years prior. I like to think my role models Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, and Lee Krasner left some DNA in the building, despite the fact that by 1996 it had evolved from a dilapidated exhibition space that cost $70 to rent for the show to a luxury co-op requiring interviews to determine whether perspective tenants' finances merited residency. 
 
However, the sacred experience of literally walking in the footsteps of my icons did not influence me to become an artist until two decades, three continents, two masters degrees, and one bout of cancer later when in 2022 I transmuted my lifelong love, education in criticism, and contextual understanding of art into
The Startup Artist endeavor of abstract painting.

The Startup Artist moniker references my career as a strategist for startup companies. As employee number 2, 5, 7 and in other early hiring waves, I mapped business plans and charted road maps for newly-formed entities. There were few resources available, requiring elite problem-solving skills and supreme creativity to make an impact. Doing this daily for decades imbued me with an ingenuity that has served my artistic practice well. 

Many of my finished pieces are repurposed, painted, re-painted and re-re-repainted out of the need to maximize my supplies, pure curiosity and a desire to experiment. The outcomes are colorful, multilayered, abstract paintings produced via a theory of practice that is both reminiscent of and pays homage to the stylistic individualism and process innovation of the Ninth Street Women.