The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 171 - 114: Derong Fan Doorn’s New Interview

Milan, Italy,

The busy Malpensa International Airport.

A sleek Gulfstream G500 private jet is approaching for landing.

The owner of such a high-end business jet is typically either a Forbes-listed tycoon, a rock legend, or a sports superstar, with top priority in airport VIP services.

The terminal delayed the landing of two Berlin Air Airbus 320neo planes circling above Milan, clearing the runway for it to land first.

This plane is entirely covered from nose to tail in a blue-black postmodern style spray paint, with a black sun on its vertical tail fin.

Now approaching the Winter Fashion Week.

Such a uniquely personalized paint job immediately caught the attention of many paparazzi in the terminal.

"Wow! A Gulfstream G500, is this Lady Gaga’s new plane with that paint job? There are rumors she’s coming for the Milan red carpet?"

One paparazzo picked up his camera, snapping wildly at the Cthulhu-esque Gulfstream.

"No, Lady Gaga’s new plane is painted gold. Moreover, inside information says that Lady Gaga just finished performing at the NFL Super Bowl halftime show and is now on vacation with her family. She won’t be attending any commercial events this month."

Another paparazzo, seemingly more informed, retorted.

"This is... the plane paint of illustrator Derong Fan Doorn."

A fashion magazine reporter with a lion-like unruly beard aimed his viewfinder at the Gulfstream taxiing on the runway.

"Derong Fan Doorn? Which celebrity is that again?"

The paparazzi seemed to have heard the name somewhere but couldn’t recall immediately.

"Famous illustrator, fashion tycoon, known for designing clothes for Zara, designer of the United Nations official snow protection logo ’Environmental Polar’... He should now be the Chief Art Officer of the cutting-edge French fashion brand Amida."

The reporter uncle seemed quite knowledgeable about fashion art, casually listing Fan Doorn’s multiple identities.

"Oh, I remember now. In that video released by Mr. Hibernian, one of the illustrations was by Fan Doorn, right?"

Someone finally recalled the previously viral video on YouTube.

"Isn’t that the artist who was criticized as worthless by that beautiful judge named Elina? If I recall correctly, the winner at the end of the video seemed to be an online illustrator named Detective Cat."

"No, no, no... Didn’t you read the follow-up reports? That judge lady was a second-generation rich person who climbed up by leveraging her family name and doesn’t understand art at all. As for Detective Cat, just a cheap illustrator who only does pirated online illustrations."

"But his drawings do look really good."

"Photos look even more realistic, but can you sell a plain photo for big money? A cheap illustrator is just a cheap illustrator, with no personal understanding of art. Heard that judge girl was fired by Oil Painting magazine. Meanwhile, Fan Doorn can still fly private jets and attend Milan Fashion Week as if nothing happened... By the way, has anyone specifically followed the Milan Fashion Week circuit before? Why have I never seen Fan Doorn in Amida’s exhibition area?"

...

"Damn cripple, at this time in previous years, I should still be in Paris."

Van Doorn frowned, looking out the porthole at the snow-covered city.

As one of the few top-tier cross-boundary illustrators in fashion at the moment, Van Doorn is undoubtedly among the top-earning illustrators in the industry’s history.

Rei Louise as an art professor only earns "but" a few hundred thousand US dollars a year.

But just the aviation fuel and maintenance costs for business jets that Van Doorn burns off attending various fashion weeks each year almost amount to that sum.

However,

He doesn’t need to bear these expenses himself.

After successfully breaking into fashion and environmental fields with his illustrations, Van Doorn ended his contract with the top gallery, Lisson Gallery.

Now,

Although he still takes on some high-paying illustration contracts,

His main role is Chief Art Officer for the French fashion brand "Mir Amida," which focuses on eco-friendly crafts.

In the contract offered by this fashion brand company to secure an artist like Fan Doorn, it included the use of this 40 million US Dollar Gulfstream G500, and a 62-foot blue-water yacht moored in a Mediterranean port.

In other words,

This is part of the artist’s benefits package, all expenses are billed to the company, and he doesn’t have to spend a single penny out of pocket.

But Fan Doorn is not without pressure.

There are hardly any evergreens in the modern art style field, and the fashion and brand industry changes startlingly fast.

Even a superstar like Kanye, who once made so much money every day he couldn’t even count it all, saw his business empire crumble; if not broken, at least his race-related remarks brought a considerable burden on Adi in the Europe and America market.

There are countless design artists who were celebrated yesterday but are now ignored by the market.

At Fan Doorn’s level,

If not going forward, one would slide back.

Amida’s global sales were about ten to fifteen billion US dollars in previous years, ranking in the upper middle among leading fashion brands.

Though it never compared to Kanye’s "Yeezy," nor came close to old luxury companies like Hermes or Chanel, such fashion brands have a very high-profit margin, and the company was pretty lively.