David Flusberg is an artist, author, entrepreneur, and scuba diver. He was born in the USA and studied Economics at Harvard. Since 2004, he has been living in Bucharest, Romania, where he established a successful real estate business.
At the age of 25, David experienced something unique during his travels in Asia, which inspired him to start painting. Besides his passion for painting, he writes poetry and performs and is interested in digital art. The interview explores David’s artistic journey, sources of inspiration, passions and future plans.
Angela Izvercian: When did you first discover your passion for art, and how did you start to paint?
David Flusberg: I started teaching myself to paint at 25 while living in Manhattan and working as a business consultant.
At that time, I felt out of balance. There was a growing sense that important sides of my personality needed to channel creative expression, but inherited repressions blocked the internal mechanisms. I didn’t know where to start.
On New Year’s Eve 2000, while travelling in Laos, I found myself in a remote village in the mountains—first as an observer and then as a participant in a shamanic healing ceremony. This experience and the visionary archetypes it evoked started a process of integration for me, which is still ongoing.
Integration means the lifelong adventure to return to the Self—by finding the balance between the different psychic energies that make each of us unique and whole.
When I returned to New York from Asia, I bought some art supplies and started to paint and compose poetry.
A.I.: You describe yourself as an artist, author, entrepreneur, and scuba diver. Tell us more about each of these roles in your life. How do you manage to juggle all these roles? Do they complement each other?
We all have two sides of our brains and even more sides of our personalities. We all have deeper abilities than we normally realize. Staying true to our unique talents and juggling those with our day-to-day survival—can be stressful.
Thankfully, Nature has given us tools to release stress, increase balance, and be mindful of gratitude. This is the meaning of ongoing healing, even for people who seem medically fit.
My most important role in life is being the father of three amazing children. They keep me grounded and inspire me to express myself.
I became a scuba instructor to teach my kids to dive. When we dive, we enter a unique state of mind, which I call “in vivo/vitro consciousness”—the combination of meditative flow states with hyper-alert focus, where surrender and control interact in a healthy and complementary manner. It is a similar state to one that can be experienced while making art.
In day-to-day life, the ability to relax and disconnect into “oceanic” states of consciousness while remaining grounded and focused—is an important skill for all people, especially children.
From an artistic standpoint, painting and writing complement each other, especially when combined with or created under the influence of music.
Synesthesia, where multiple senses combine into singular, transcendent experiences, is part of our psychic DNA. Tapping into it is a proven method for re-wiring our brains with increased neuroplastic adaptability.
A.I.: Your art has an intensely autobiographical and mythological dimension. How would you describe your artistic style, and what key themes or concepts inspire your art?
D.F.: Making art is a set of tools for my integration—a way to find balance and healing through creativity.
We are all on a quest to find the right story for ourselves, and art is a way to process and ingrain that story into our psyche. In that sense, authentic art always communicates something autobiographical.
We are also the products of our ancestors, families, and tribes, who transmit mythologies and archetypes to our subconscious—images, words, and music as an inner fabric that underlies the emotions and thoughts comprising our sense of Self. When we release this information from our subconscious to process and integrate it, we become more Self-aware.
My art (including painting and poetry) combines all of these elements into its symbolic storytelling. The audience can engage with it on different levels. It vibrates with expanded states of consciousness, including the love we carry for our ancestors, families, tribes—and Selves.
Each piece is a unique story referencing diverse mythologies, languages, and religions. The style is primitive yet complex, with textured layers that capture my physical experience in making the art. Sometimes, the pieces are more figurative, and at other times, totally abstract.
A.I.: How important is it to you to convey a message through your art?
D.F.: The most important message is authenticity, the source of all other messages. It is the mission of each person to learn what that means for her or himself and, in doing so, to inspire others.
More and more people are investing energy into authentic ways to expand consciousness for the sake of humanity and its future. The first step is to push aside fear and establish contact with personal and universal stories that live inside the inner Self.
Art—including visual art, poetry, music, and digital—brings humanity closer to embodying the fundamental interconnectedness of Everything.
A.I.: What are the stages of your creative process, from the idea or source of inspiration to when you are delighted with the result? Do you prefer spontaneity, or do you put more emphasis on research?
D.F.: The general imagery of a painting or poem is envisioned in a moment of spontaneity that arises from the balance between oceanic consciousness (where mythology swims free) and hyper-alert focus (my ongoing research about psychology, anthropology, comparative religion, and other topics).
Visions are captured and filed away; some become paintings and/or poems.
After the initial idea for a painting (underpainting) or poem (outline) is laid out, the details can be added from a state of flow—where wordplay springs more directly from the subconscious, and the painting paints itself semi-autonomously.
Paintings and poems are never finished until the underlying energy runs its course—and then they may reincarnate into other paintings and poems when the time is right.
A.I.: In addition to painting, you write poetry and do performances and you are also interested in digital art. Is there something you would like to experience, but the proper context has not come along yet?
D.F.: I envision an underwater temple—an indoor scuba diving facility that offers artistic and meditative underwater experiences through the interaction between sound, light, sculpture, and digital art—to be enjoyed by scuba divers, free divers, swimmers, or people staying out of the water.
These kinds of facilities are technically and commercially feasible to build, and they promote public health and tourism. It would be a great thing for Romania.
A.I.: Can you tell us about a particular series of artworks that hold special meaning to you and why?
D.F.: The Power of Three
The series called “The Power of Three” includes three large triptychs that together form an integrated vision of balance between dualities—which, according to mystical beliefs, is channelled from the wellspring of all creation through the Third Eye, along the third (central) axis of the Tree of Life, and into the very heart of the Trinity.
The Birth of Jonah and Birth of the Snow Leopard are shamanic encounters with the Self and its animal spirits—in a place where reflective meditation lights the path to transformation and rebirth. These two large paintings were made sixteen years apart, opening and closing a chapter on the journey of self-awareness.
The three paintings that comprise Mosaic Trinity hang together in balance to represent three phases of expanded consciousness—where visionary abstractions, mythological archetypes, and sacred words are conjured—as blessings for the cosmic vibrations that connect us all to the same Source.
Om-Eteo: Integration
The four-meter-long arrangement of four paintings called “Om-Eteo: Integration” was commissioned for a private collector.
This series is a prayer for sacred space, in which often-competing male and female energies can find a better balance by anchoring themselves in the power of spoken and unspoken words. And through that process of communication and self-expression, positive energy can be reignited into our dearest relationships.
Meeting Madrecita
The series of seven paintings called “Meeting Madrecita” honors the transcendent immanence of Mother Earth—the many manifestations of whom heals the human condition, through acts of nurture, connection, and creativity. Each painting is a mystical portal to a visionary meeting with maternal feminine energies, fostering greater empathy and balance in the cycles of life.
A.I.: You recently launched an artist book, A Deep Dive Into Ego-Hacked Art, reflecting your journey to overcome fear through the paintings and poetry you created. The book also invites the viewer to embark on this journey of self-exploration. Tell us more about the concept of the book and the context that stimulated the appearance of the book.
D.F.: The book A Deep Dive Into Ego-Hacked Art is an autobiographical story told through a selection of my paintings, poetry, and poetic narrative. The book was launched at the Biohacker Summit in Amsterdam in 2023.
Biohacking refers to the fusion of cutting-edge medicine and technology to enhance human performance, well-being, and longevity. “Ego-Hacking” refers to the creative, psychological, and spiritual aspects of Biohacking—where we make meaning from human experience as a mindful practice to live longer, healthier lives.
Ego-Hacked Art (my own terminology) is any authentic art created from a space of expanded consciousness, where we crack the Ego-code of whatever is holding us back, surrender to vulnerability, and honor what we all share.
The book is a portal to enter a psycho-spiritual journey that integrates aspects of life experience and ancient wisdom through art and artistic inspiration. The spirits of family, ancestors, and nature are always present in the journey.
The book can be engaged and understood on multiple levels—looking at paintings, reading multilayered texts, or as a gift item to sit beautifully on a coffee table.
The book is available online here.
A.I.: What projects are you working on now, and how do you see your professional path in the coming years?
D.F.: I am finishing two new art and poetry books; each will be a journey into states of expanded consciousness. I enjoy creating books that connect visuals with words and plan to make more of them.
I am also creating digital versions of my poetry performances, which are powerful audiovisual journeys into alternate realms of stream-of-consciousness art—combining original music, poetry, and visually stunning Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated animation in collaboration with amazing musicians and digital artists. In the future, these videos will be Virtual Reality (VR) experiences inside metaverse temples built as cryptocurrency-backed virtual real estate assets.
I continue to perform my poetry at live events, collaborating with amazing musicians and artists in Romania, the Netherlands, Finland, Portugal, and Costa Rica. I enjoy expressing my words with music in front of an audience; from a creative perspective, it helps to balance out the intense solitude of making paintings. Proceeds from upcoming events will be donated to support healing initiatives for people in need, like terror victims at the Nova music festival.
David’s first AI animated poetry video can be seen here.
Cover photo: David FLUSBERG (background: SNAKE CHARM, 2019, oil on canvas, 120 x 140 cm)
