I had been wanting to check out Andrew's art for a while and visiting his studio was a great opportunity to see his work and do a little tarot. Andrew's current project is a series of acrylic paintings that synthesize elements of archetypal imagery into new forms. Ideally each painting conveys a trace of the original character, yet transcends cultural aesthetics into a fresh vision of the archetype. Some of the imagery he uses includes: Javanese shadow puppets, corporate security envelopes, 17th century O'Neil harps, head dresses, and East Indian art of the Pahari period.
Archetypes are fluid beasts; they merge across traditions and evolve to fit each successive generation. Without succumbing to it, his paintings are indicative of the information age: technology allows us to transcend locality and enables unprecedented cross-cultural influence. Andrew's work is a reverberation of this world of merging cultures, illustrating the question of whether this generation's art will be of shared humanity or shared homogeny.
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