ArtSite...in process

"The essential aspects of the artistic experience of Brian Averill are, in my view, divided up into two areas.The first is marked by abstract and informal experimentation that motivates both his aesthetic and spiritual life. The quintessence of his artistic message, being without reference to the concrete or the figure, finds its source in primordial depths. The second aspect is directly linked to the first and concerns the probable and perceptible confrontation between visual art and music. Averill is also a musician, something reflected in the visual characteristics of his works. Relative to the language of Averill, a triangle can be imagined, its base founded upon music and visual art. At its summit a spiritual tension is both the source and horizon of his expression..." - Giorgio Agnisola, Art Historian & critic, Italy (...reflecting on a series of paintings following collaborations with Gong Tie Gong, a Beijing painter/calligrapher in the Brussels studio)

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Formal study: independent

My studies were independent moving through universities in the US and Europe, along with invitations and scholarship offers. It seemed to go pretty smoothly, yet finishing what I started with selective courses at the European college of the U of Maryland while living in Belgium. I also attended the first period of Arabic at the U of Gent and systems and transnational studies nights at VUB econ Brussels to understand how the big flow of money works, having been working in the music industry by solicitation and communications for money. Art was entirely departmentalized in my beautiful Brussels studio and before that in Brugge, where my daughters were born and lived their early lives in a perfect world. Music was disruptive and the result of responding to demands on the publishing, recording and concert level. When you have no money you take a chance on offers to see what happens. I also worked labor and teaching English privately at established language schools, the only other work possible in the congealed economy of Belgium where the entire country would shut down over postal and transport strikes.

and finding all ther subjects but art to be seriously dedicated to well-founded theory and application*, whereas artists were in fantasy worlds thinking they can reinvent the profound. Eventually much of art became merely an illustration of random ideas. I preferred academic environments except art academies that did as much to misguide you from the foundations of the profession - like Futurists entirely discarding the past and embracing the machine age - then send out thousands with diplomas into a world that no longer needs them except to decorate corporate walls and illustrate commercial products. Clever enticing sensationalism in art has won immense wealth reflecting Pop Music icons. But we live in a culture of shallow world of movies - the actual art form of today - to pass the time.

trends constructs to attract attention, none of which will last with cultural relevance. But one's work is individually "avant garde" with next door manifesting their own personal revolution, not that historical periods hosted a true collective with mutual goals. So, as individuals we work and hope that there is relevance therein.

and there had been several invitations. I was in the art and art history faculty of Portland State University for two years. I then attended for several months the academies of fine art in Brussels (drawing/gravure); Ghent (photography) and Antwerp (drawing & a little painting).* I had married a Flemish woman with a studio Brugge. Music was interspersed with art due to their level of engagement, and I was solicited for performance (int) and recording (DE) with major publishers (Brussels > US) and. Some outside work included training (having a BA) and post-production sessions. My wife eventually worked office hours, and we juggled our free time to secure the girls. In the late 80's I was injured at hospital while preparing to leave definitively for the US. One year was spent in isolation and treatment watching the world turn without me. Following a period in the USA it was clear that move would be halted with belated diagnosis of MS. I had to let the performance level, and later truly give it up to Europe for the first time. Literally everything - the 7 day & night weeks, the risks - were based upon expansion in the US. Though independent the growing pressures made the move essential. Then I found out there was something beyond essential. I was doing a rocky climb, but my summit was the surface of earth out of a deep, very deep valley. But no one sees things on the surface. It was in those depths that valuable lessons were learned. Something is going to come out of it, and I intended on profiting.

*including the Univerdities of Gent and Brussels (VUB); Royal Academy of Fine art, Brussels (large scale life drawing) Gent: photography (the whole department to myself); Antwerp (mixed up place but did some work on drawing. Invited to skip to the MFA program but things did not feel right. Later invited to Reed College. Living in Brugge I gave my need-of-growth wife a choice in the decision to get back to a professional life with a future. I let it go and it was hard to the complete limits that can lead to humilations because you don't belong and cannot. I went through it keep my head up and on-the-move always.

But I was in Belgium or any place in slow old Europe for no other reason than the Bahá'í movement, friendship among all nations toward abiding world peace. But the old order will have to crumble under the weight of its excesses and basic corruption. The heart must be purified to receive what is pure. You clean a glass before filling it with fresh water.

This is an "about", and proofs in art are varied. I saw the art world in endless post-modern chaos and originally studied toward a teaching position at an art faculty based in demonstrable drawing technique. Going in-and-out of several schools of art caused a drift, and I finished independent studies with BA focus on Literature, Art & Art History. My studies included sciences, aesthetic philosophy and cultural anthropology. But the whole of it was a rounded and truthful view to know. I was always unhappy to end a course just when it was beginning. Days of study, interacting with intelligent professors in a dignified but exciting environment where animal survival and outward material things were superceded were some of my best memories. At first I wanted to work at a university art faculty for a living but there were distractions and a reluctance to enter that scene in post-modern whatever.

I went abroad to further world peace in the Bahá'í movement. Bahai.org has everything, and much literature in the library.

I worked as a head teacher at 4 adult language schools and in communications, such as in film post-production and adaptations.