Anton Brown, 25, artist
BIO SUMMARY
Anton's parents met at a college business course, quickly sparking up a relationship. One was a city boy, a legacy eager to prove his name, the other an ambitious girl from a small European town, chasing her luck abroad.
They started dating, had a baby, got divorced five years later, and off their son went to live with his grandparents in Europe.
Anton was resentful of his parents growing up, and though he quickly learned to mimic their passive-aggressive behavior, the sheltered upbringing, combined with his grandparent's over-zealous portrayal of their daughter, kept him from ever letting his frustration show.
After his high school graduation, his mother reached out and invited him to spend a summer in New York. Turns out the picture his parents had been painting for years was true - they were both extremely ambitious, undeniably hard-working, and hugely successful in their respective fields. Except - what they failed to mention (or, at the very least, greatly understated) was that their business meetings took place in the most elite of restaurants, the recruitment of new clients happened at the most exclusive events in New York City, and that, wouldn't you know it, his mom even owned a spare studio apartment downtown, just in case a friend ever wanted to crash town for a visit. Lovely.
At the time, Anton's mom had been working her way up the ladder of a prominent New York art gallery. Anton secretly enjoyed the work events she took him to; not only did they inspire his own artistic expression, they just so happened to become the place he met his very first muse
The summer was one of experiments, with plenty of booze, adventure, and sexual promiscuity. Unfortunately, it all came to an end in the blink of an eye, and Anton was sent right back across the Atlantic, back into the close-minded community that wouldn't dare dream of the experiences he'd just had.
He got his BA and MA in American studies and sociology, though he never really had a real passion for either, it just seemed like an easy enough degree to get through. He did do a couple semesters abroad, though never in the US, and lost touch with most friends he made along the way.
He moved to SF soon after handing in his master's thesis, ready for a new start. Well, he thought he was ready, at least, but in the end, moving across the ocean took up so much time and energy, all of those art workshops he said he'd be attending and the job hunts he'd say he'd go on remained nothing but scribbles in a forgotten journal
+ a bonus fact Anton would never bring up
One night in NY, Anton and his new group of mischievous friends spent an evening sneaking booze from an exhibition opening, openly mocking the pieces together. It was meant to make him feel better about his asshole mother, but it ended up giving him the idea for a little "prank".
Long story short, he created a bunch of obviously lazy "modern art", slapped a fake profound message behind it, create a new fake persona to sign under the art, and then used the connections he had made in NY to make it seem like his mom had accidentally stumbled upon the hottest, newest, coolest artist in town, and bam - watch her embarrass herself by putting her highly valued seal of approval on literal piles of trash.
but you see, what this smartass neglected to realize, was that when a prominent figure in the art community presents a new piece as highly desirable, highly desirable is exactly what it becomes - and so a new elusive artist was born. The anonymity only added to the intrigue, and so he eventually decided to just go along with it, sending in pieces every now and then (nearly all of them made during college parties or their clean-ups). He says it's ironic, but he doesn't really mind the money either.
He is trying to become an artist in his own right and is definitely stubborn enough to refuse any and all help from his mom or any of her connections at all.
I'm not saying he's banksy, but I'd like to think at least one of his works stirred up a drunken debate at some academic art seminar
(I also have not thought of his artist name yet, but when I do, you bet he'll hate it and won't want anything to do with it)
