Athletes Support Art for Charity

Orange County based artist Jorge Burtin has captured my attention…not just because his artwork is amazing but because he’s raised thousands of dollars for non-profits, schools, universities, hospitals etc. And he’s also captured the attention of a few Athlebrities.

Jorge’s art form is called Pixaic…if you haven’t heard of it before, that’s because Jorge created it himself. Each piece of art contains tens of thousands of tiny hand broken squares of glass; it is the ancient mosaic form presented in a modern, pixelized fashion and no doubt takes equal amounts of talent and patience to create.

What I adore about this artist is his generosity. His pieces sell for tens of thousands of dollars each, but Jorge doesn’t keep the money-he gives all profits from the sale of his work to charity. All of it. When someone buys one of his pieces, they simply name the charity they’d like to benefit from their purchase and Jorge whips out his checkbook and writes a check directly to the non-profit organization for the market value of the piece.

Most recently, Jorge was involved with Lamar Odom’s fundraiser (above)…and is participating in San Diego Charger’s Shaun Phillips event later this month…Jorge’s donations from his artwork have gone to organizations such as ‘Black Women United for Action,’ Toronto University, Las Vegas Ballet Theatre, Hoag Hospital, Chai Life Line, and the Boys & Girls Clubs, to name a few. Perhaps his most famous contribution is a Pixaic of Andrea Bocelli which was auctioned at a Bocelli concert with profits donated to a charity benefiting blind children. You can even find a commissioned piece (by Black Women United for Action) featured at the National Slave Memorial at George Washington’s Mansion in Mount Vernon.

For more information about this amazing man and his remarkable way of giving back, please visit PIXAIC.COM.

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda@athlebrities.com