SALT LAKE CITY — James Burt honored Kobe Bryant with a mural painting at the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit Thursday.
What happened: Burt — founder of Artistik, which paints walls and murals for tech companies — set up a small booth at the entrance of the Salt Palace Convention Center where he painted a mural of Bryant.
- Burt — who has painted murals for Stack, Adobe and other big companies — debated painting Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein.
- Burt: “With the tragedy of Kobe Bryant, it was a no-brainer for me. I knew that it was going to mean something special to me. I knew it was going to mean something special to a lot of people here. So I dropped that and decided to go with that.”
- He will add more color to the mural.
What’s next: He normally gives the painting to Silicon Slopes. He is giving them shoes this year. He wants to keep the Kobe painting.
- He plans to keep the mural himself. He doesn’t do many personal paintings so he wanted to do one for a collection. He plans to make it the first of a series. He may make some prints. Just for fun.
- Burt: “Put it out there for a ridiculous price because I don’t wanna sell it,” he said.