1stAngel & Friends

Andrew May

Welcome To The Artists Blog

1stAngel: When did you first become interested in art?

Andrew: My interest in Art lay dormant until I first encounted Original Arts practice in mid 1997 in Berlin / Germany. I was travelling around Northern Europe at the time and spent a few weeks in an Artist squat being subjected to and enthralled by the European attitude to Arts Appreciation thus began my own practice as a Sculptor .

1stAngel: What style of art do you use most?

Andrew: The description of My “Style” which as an Artist is always determinded by the viewer, and has been described as Dark, Social Commentary, Urban Realism and Innerscapes or Dreamscapes.

I think of my work over the last ten years as being mostly figurative or landscape which are two artistic genres that could accommodate my vision, as it seems to me, to draw the most energy out of my ideas .

Weighing The Shadow Inside The Brutality Of Truth no2

The focus on the human form in my work is something that is carried around in the search of whatever my creativity is looking for and it seems to predominately rely on Male figuration. It is a repetition that sounds throughout my Art, the soul figure in abandonment, it would be rare for the female figure to appear in what I do. Maybe only once or twice in a year .

I understand the attraction of documenting the outlines and curves of the female form through such practices as life drawing but it is too easy to fall into the production of Fluff Painting or Art. As that sort of predicament is doomed to the ownership of a time-frame whereby once ” the honeymoon is over ” with that genre of work it falls into being one dimensional. So my style that I use, I think has harnessed what it needs to be productive in the accomplishment of my ideas by taking a little portion everything that I source to gain an end Product. And after 10 years Artist practice my style has decided its perimeters with which I need to flex and try to extend inside its boundaries of everyday.

1stAngel: Has your style changed from when you first began as an artist?

Andrew: It has revolved in a circle ,

I began with sculpture then went into photography onward towards painting than around and back to sculpture again.

When i started producing paintings and charcoal drawings I was astounded by certain artists ability to produce a realist image but as a painter, the closer I journeyed towards that increasing realm, the more I realised that that style of work can begin to take on a sterile atmosphere.

And you begin to hear quotes on exhibiting such works like “wow it looks like a photograph ” which to me is pointless ballast, as i think that painting should be “painting” ..you can take a painting further on a emotional level than a photograph, much deeper. (A painting can weigh more than a sculpture in its confrontion with the viewer).

The two have no need to compete on any level as each has a solid and distinguished Art history - both come from the need and want to document the existence of the human race in its evolving timeframe.

So my style since the beginning drifted to the edge of something along the lines of Realism then about faced and i was interested in textured work with lots of thick paint and washes, almost sculptural.in the hope to bring the image out of the work .

To Outweigh The Journey Forwardless

Being a Self-Taught Artist has given me an enormous advantage as the search for my artistic feat has been largely unhindered by outside institutional influence and by this I mean I have been given a free reign as to what and how I want to be inspired to create.

Not by someone else’s regimented view.

1stAngel: What medium do you use?

Andrew: With painting Oil on Canvas
With sculpture Welded Metal and Stainless steel
With photography mostly 35mm B&W {I dont own a Digital Camera.}
With Large scale Drawing’s Charcoal and Soft Pastel on Card

1stAngel: What made you choose that medium?

Andrew: Ease of Availability. Fascination of Materials.

I went from Sculpture to Photography then into Painting /Drawing for a few years then returned back to Sculpture in 2003 for the Yering Station Sculpture Award, Melbourne, where I was awarded 3rd place and won the Peoples’ Choice award .

All the mediums that I use personally despise each other and compete for my attention as in a day I could be painting in the very early morning then weld sculptures for the rest of the afternoon then head out to photograph while the sun is still up then return to painting again.

I truly believe that a lot of photographers would benefit from trying their hand at painting and a lot of painters would break new ground trying to create in the three dimensional with sculptural practice .

There is something deeply attractive in completing a creative idea that would normally reach its zenith with painting and having the ability to “grab the idea by the throat ” and turn it into a sculpture.

1stAngel: Do your ideas come from life or imagination?

Andrew: 95 % of my work is autobiographical.

Usually its is a matter of finding the right medium to express those ideas which my Life experience churns up.

Roomage

Most of my ideas are processed and returned to me via either an unpredictable Subconscious or through daily interactions with life’s weighted heaviness.

The ideas come at me with the force a sledge-hammer and can only be documented by working on their completion as soon as possible. Which is the main reason way I am usally working on over 20 works of art at once in one given week.

1stAngel: How do you choose your images and colours?

Andrew: Imagery for my work comes mostly from my repeating of life experience’s
that my subconscious revolves and brings images into my dreams and nightmares,
like a mental photograph that can be tuned and brought onto the Canvas or any other medium
with the ability of practicing ones craft.
A colleague once told me that he thought that I “paint what i can not photograph” .
The imagery can be unpredictable in its arrival as it can decide to come forth
when and where ever it chooses fit .and it’s always a need to have the material
on-hand to quickly document it ( a sketch /photograph) as imagery can come as a flow in series
or a single unique template and if it is not captured ,even in the slightest form of a basic sketch
then it decides to disappear and reinvent itself to be whatever it wants .

Colour choice in works over the years has been sometimes financial and challenge based
as I enjoy the attraction of tone and light in a work of art and i will spend a year producing
b&w paintings as I fall for the starkness of using 2 colours to produce a image that has no need
to rely on the bamboozelment of a reaction from the viewer to obvious Primary colour usement.

1stAngel: Who is your favourite artist?

Andrew: I could not choose 1 as they change weekly . But here are two of interest
Euan MacCload “A Painters , Painter”
Theo Jansen “A Sculptors,Sculptor”

1stAngel: What is your favourite piece of work by yourself?

Andrew: Choosing a favorite personal artwork is difficult as i have always created work that i would love to have on display permanently as i would be in need of a massive building with wall space and large grounds for outdoor pieces and new works are always more exciting to view than something that was produced 5 years ago .

As each work is a holding cell to an emotional time-span for me

I have returned to works that at the time meant the world to me but years later have little or no meaning left.
But if it really came down to it ……….THE HERD….which is a 4.5m x 2m charcoal drawing

The Herd

is a reliable love and moving piece as it was completed in 8 hours and aged me 5 years.

1stAngel: How much time (on average) does it take to complete a work?

Andrew: Paintings, Drawings and Small Sculptures No more than a few hours, if they can not decide what they want to be and which way they are headed in that timeframe they have no worth. If they are still sitting there unfinished after a week they are dead Energy.

Large Outdoor Sculptures up to 3 months. As working on such a large scale (up to 6m tall) other factors come into the produce stage .

Photography very minimal as I rarely stage a photograph and work very candidly.

1stAngel: How well do you take criticism?

Andrew: Being an Arts Professional, Criticism is all part of the journey as an Artist and when it is learned and constructive it is always taken on board and used for furtherment as to have a fresh focus on the weak points in ones work is deeply liberating .

Night Image

1stAngel: What do you do to overcome a ‘block’?

Andrew: By working in so many different mediums I rarely suffer artistic ‘block’ due to if the idea refuses to be a 2d image say, a painting or a photograph, then it will shift its weight to become a sculpture or a film.

On those rare occasions where there is nothing in the hold, the answer to a visual artists “un blocking ” is the same a musician or a lyricist, whereby those 2 professions would either listen to new music or read new prose or poetry ,to restock and begin new ideas.

All a visual artist has to do is go out and look at the world, go and drink in as much new imagery as possible that the outside world can conjure. A blank canvas will still remain a blank canvas if you haven’t interacted with humanity .

1stAngel: How do you know something is ‘finished’? Is it easy to walk away?
Andrew: Producing a work of art for me is an Enormous Physical and Emotional Drain that leaves me haunted.

it is a battle where by and especially with painting/drawing

I set out with the image attached and hanging in my mind as to want it wants to be in the physical realm.

It is not dissimilair to being in the possession of a mental photograph or a constructed image of scenery floating behind my closed eyes. You bring it onto what ever medium you choose and you have to never let it have a chance to shift its focus until its completion as you are drawing the work out of you.

I believe Visual artists are Tuners along the lines of shamans (but not so easily defined),

Equillibrum

A commonly heard quote on completing a work of art is “I don’t know where ” that ” came from it was just in my head.” and if you enter the right frame of mind a work can be executed in a very small and precise amount of time .

The key is to be able to keep that “door” open and be able to return and work in that “head space” without Hindrance and Vice.

So the works are already finished in my mind, it is a matter of having the reliable ability to concrete the moment when it will not go any further and begin its backward slide.

I have produced over 1000 painting/drawings and over 3000 photographs and 100s of sculptures in the last ten years and 40% of that total i have destroyed as being unsuitable as they have lacked the moment of knowing that they are finished and the missing element has not shown itself in the work but has arisen in the next piece that was started.

1stAngel: Have you had exhibits in galleries?

Andrew: Over the last 10 years I have exhibited my works around Melbourne in Numerous galleries and award Exhibitions numbering over 65 group shows and 11 solo exhibitions, and been a selected artist in 30 visual art awards since 2002 and have won 7 awards in each medium of my practice.

In Dec 2004 I opened my own Studio/Art gallery called

Circus Gallery Melbourne

Siphoning the Level of Monochrome Violence no1

1stAngel: Have you any exhibits in galleries planned for the future?

Andrew: I have never planned my life for more than 3 months ahead, Anything and Everything is Possible.

1stAngel: What are your plans for the future?
Andrew: We are looking relocating to either the U.S or Nth Europe in 2008 and begin booking our themed Exhibitions and solo shows upon reopening.

More Personal Photography and Artist book publishing.

I have just completed my 10 year anniversary Angel Photography Series and am looking to publish a collection of more B&W photography.

Andrew your interview has been amazing and I am sure we have not even begun to scratch the surface of what makes up Andrew May’s work. Many thanks for allowing me this opportunity.

You can see Andrew’s work at the following places:

www.andrewmay.com.au
also
www.redbubble.com/people/circusgallery
www.redbubble.com/people/AngelSeries2008
www.redbubble.com/people/InnerNortherns