Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Andrew.
Hi Kevin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I followed the “right path” for many years before questioning it. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in Civil Engineering, years working in IT Corporate America, and a successful Entrepreneur Business Exit, I now paint abstract artwork full time with an intention to find my self.
My work explores how proximity and connection (once cultivated in my previous business), now unfold within the canvas. Colors, textures, and intentions collide to create something entirely new together.
Beneath each intention lies a raging evolution of self-exploration where my analytical, goal-driven ego battles my unwavering creative spirit for control. This tension is prevalent throughout all my artwork with a constant push/pull of control vs. intuition.
Complicating matters further, dilemmas of internal suppression play out within the frame of each piece, exploding in frustration at times.
By embracing fear and surrendering control, I create from the edge of breaking. My intention-tension-suppression dance transforms into raw, unrepeatable expressions of my evolving self.
This is the most authentic I have ever felt in my lifetime. Welcome to my chaos.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an artist full time is a continual hustle and struggle. It requires constant innovation and pursuing/creating opportunities to sell artwork. It is a continual balance of needing to support my family and my lifestyle while staying authentic to my true, creative spirit. I believe the pushing I continue to do will eventually build momentum to provide a more stabilized lifestyle for me. These are some of the most wonderful problems to have, and I love being able to make a life for myself centered around my creative output and expression. I truly believe this is my purpose in this lifetime, and every time I doubt myself the universe provides and keeps me pushing forward. The main struggle of being an artist is protecting my time to actually create artwork. I could fill each week with meetings and todos and never paint anything. Limiting my availability to the world while creating along with setting limits for social media is an ongoing struggle.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I create abstract paintings using acrylic paint and markers. I used to do a lot of graffiti growing up and my work contains elements of that previous world in it. I am drawn to Art Nouveau design to potentially unhealthy levels. I have been incorporating organic, flowing shapes and flora with big bold outlines and definition. I am always striving for a balanced, expressive abstract composition with a healthy amount of negative space which combines the graffiti and Art Nouveau elements. Every painting has an intention behind it. It can be as simple as appreciating the sunset, to the complications of death and appreciating life, and everything in-between.
I work large scale and that has set me apart. My work scales to all sizes, and I love to work BIG. I am proud of the work I create. I look at a painting a week after I completed it and can not comprehend how I made it. It felt so normal and productive in the moment, but after the fact, when I can step away from the work for a week, I really really love it.
I am vulnerable about my artwork to strangers. I share what the paintings are about, and this resonants with collectors. I feel this vulnerability and candid discussions about my work helps set me apart. It allows collectors to relate to my work on a deeper level, and I believe this is really important compared to the painting just matching their couch and pillows.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I wish I had more advice to share, but the more I learn and the older I get, the less I know.
Attachment theory therapy has had a profound impact on my personal and creative life. Understanding core wounds from childhood and how they show up subconsciously as an adult changes the humanity connection game.
Meditating is also the single most important thing I have started and continue to do in this life.
Radically love yourself and those you care deeply about > “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kevinandrew.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinandrew.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089302058122&mibextid=LQQJ4d
