Charles Burns
BA, MSGFA
BRK, UKCharles began his career as a Covent Garden street-portrait artist, where he discovered the lost art of the silhouettist. Since then, he has cut over 180,000 silhouettes, including three portraits of the Queen and many other fascinating people.
Charles' talks begin with a live demonstration of silhouette cutting, using an audience member as a model, before going on to talk anbout his late-life diagnosis with Asperger Syndraome and how this affected him. he ends with a message about the importance of art in our lives and business.
Charles began his career as a Covent Garden street-portrait artist, where he discovered the lost art of the silhouettist. Since then, he has cut over 180,000 silhouettes, including three portraits of the Queen and many other fascinating people.
Charles' talks begin with a live demonstration of silhouette cutting, using an audience member as a model, before going on to talk anbout his late-life diagnosis with Asperger Syndraome and how this affected him. he ends with a message about the importance of art in our lives and business.
The Last Silhouettist
"How on earth did you discover you could do that?"
Charles tackles this by introducing the audience to his teenage self. On leaving art college, he felt he was essentially unemployable. Describing himself as "one of nature's natural self-employed" he spent the next twelve years working as a street portrait artist in London's Covent Garden.
After his son's...
Make 'em Stop
After a demonstration of silhouette cutting, Charles goes on to talk about his life as a street portrait artist in the 1990s.
He recites a simple mantra used by street artists to critique each other's performances. It analyses how likely a new act is to succeed on the street. Charles compares the world of the street artist with the modern business environment, particularly the business conference. Using the street artist's mantra he asks:
"Would this conference stand survive...
Silhouette Workshop
During a demonstration of silhouette cutting, Charles tells the audience:
"Watch carefully, you're doing this next!"
Delegates then find a partner and attempts to cut each other's silhouettes. The results are hilarious. After each cutting session the room descends into happy chaos as people show their cuttings to those around them.
This workshop is a light-hearted introduction to the strangely two-dimensional world of the silhouettist. All the audience will leave...
Silhouette Secrets
Loosely based on the documentary film of the same name, this fascinating talk offer a glimpse into the quirky world of past silhouettists, and the methods they used to earn a living.
Charles will introduces a historical silhouettist or two and tells their stories. Silhouettists have always lived at the shadowy edges of the art world, and little has changed today. Shunned by the 'respectable' fine-art establishment they were often as much showman as artist. They catered to the needs...
The History of Silhouettes
The history of silhouettes as told by a practicing silhouettist.
Charles traces the story of the silhouette from the first professional silhouettists, working in Georgian London, to the proliferation of weird silhouette-cutting machines - such as the physiognotrace - during the Regency period. He describes how the invention of photography put an end to the craze for silhouettes, and how the art was quietly revived after the invention of the picture postcard in the 1900s....
The Roving Artist
Charles will bring the art of the silhouettist to life by roving amongst your guests during a drinks reception or dinner and cutting out their profiles, often in less than a minute each. Works well when combined with a keynote speech or workshop.
