Donald Bustraan is best known for his paint surfaces that incorporate various aspects of materiality with ambiguous expressions of asemic writing. Asymmetrical balances of visual and physical texture, color, and space invite the viewer to become one with the artwork through their own life experiences and interpretation. Also included here are experimental studies of Narrative Abstracts and Broken Colors. These are explained in their individual gallery pages.
Influences include: Walt Whitman, Pat Metheny, José Parlá, Cy Twombly, Jim Dine and Melanie Comber.
Donald studied at the Slade School of Art, London University under Patrick George and Sir Lawrence Gowing. He was also a continuous recipient of the Dean’s List while studying Fine Art at Michigan State University. He has a BFA from Kendall College of Design.
For most of his life, Donald has been involved in the Applied Arts traveling the world for over 20 years and living in Mexico and China. He has had the privilege of working with many great designers that include Ralph Lauren Home, Barbara Barry, Alexa Hampton, Suzanne Kasler, David Easton, Sally Sirkin Lewis, and Rose Tarlow. Now he returns to his roots of Fine Art with the introduction of this website, to contribute a verse.
O Me! O Life! Walt Whitman, 1819 - 1892
O Me! O life! ... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.