Meet Kevin Andrew

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Andrew and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, why did you pursue a creative career?
As a Lifelong Creative, I followed the right path for many years before questioning it. After obtaining 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 intention and a business mindset.

Creating art is a journey to find my self.

The simplicity of Proximity creates connections which forever change the trajectory of relationships or the composition of a painting. In the coworking space I created and operated, I was driven to see how unrelated people, working in the same space, interacted, connected, and grew to produce something new together. Empowering people with opportunities and workspaces created unimaginable connections and success stories. My drive for community building remains but now is applied within the boundaries of my canvas. Connections between colors, textures, tools, and techniques in the right empowering environment produce new and unseen compositions together. Underlying Intentions ranging from life lessons to therapy sessions influence these connections.

Underneath the intention, there is a raging evolution of self-exploration. My analytical mindset (self-identified Virgo and engineer by training) is constantly at war with my creative spirit. A process driven, goal oriented effort suppresses discomfort and self-doubt while creating. My analytical self protects my monetary focused ego, but my creative spirit knows better by constantly finding ways to bring me to the breaking point.

This Tension is prevalent throughout all my artwork with a constant push/pull of control vs. intuition. Complicating further, this tension is mixed with dilemmas of internal Suppression playing out within the frame of each piece. Is it something my ego yearns for, ultimately leading to suffering, or on the path to my true self? The struggle for permission builds pressure throughout my artwork exploding in frustration at times.

When fear, frustration, and breaking points are embraced while creating, the tension-suppression-intention dance produces dynamic, energetic, and meaningful artwork I’m proud of. My creative spirit won the battle if I cannot comprehend, replicate, or explain a painting I just finished. The more my creative spirit is empowered to express, the more comfortable I can create on the edge of breaking. I believe this space within my work will reveal my true self and purpose over time.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Everything I create has some underlying story, motivation, or therapy session. In a recent body of work, the Dismissive Avoidant series, I try to convey complex emotional states associated with avoidance.

Some of my traditional techniques evolved to attempt to communicate these feelings for the viewer. This body of work is very fluid feeling. I’ve been intutively painting wet on wet acrylic, blending over wet paint on the canvas until I’m semi-statisified then let it dry. I then do another layer of wet on wet and so on until the painting is completed. This has been my approach to self-growth and therapy. Learn, muddle, grow, analyze, evolve, then repeat to the next step of the life journey.

For these paintings, I have been thinking about how much this topic has impacted my entire life which generates bouts of rage, anger, and sadness. It’s blended quickly with feelings of relief and joy that I learned this now (better now than never). I bounce around these feelings as I create each layer. Just to make things a bit more uncomfortable I tend to dwell on the implications of my actions and inactions via avoidance which takes me down paths I must explore to move forward. I plan to paint many paintings this year exploring this.

I am at a constant internal struggle between my analytical mindset and creative spirit. This battle influences my approach to starting a new piece, and I am constantly trying to find ways to allow my creative spirit to win. Lately, I have been avoiding (pun intended) an overly structured plan with my work. I still pick out which yellow, red, and blue I’ll use, and I typically have an image from a photo I took for rough inspiration. This is enough to satisfy my analytical mind for awhile before I try to allow the chaos to really shine. I like to think I’m letting loose and letting my creative spirit express, but I’m not always sure. I do everything I can to ignore my analytical views while painting, a slightly different spin on the suppression I was discussion earlier in my work.

When I’m on the right path of creating, I reach a breaking point in my creative process. I doubt, question, and ask myself whether it’s all “bullshit.” These are the most trying, frustrating, and depressing moments of creation. I get immense feelings of self-doubt and contemplate destroying the painting. Then I give in. I think about my artist friend, Nico Amortegui, saying to me: ‘fuck it, do it, you have nothing to lose’. I try something that’ll make or break the painting. Every-single-time it takes me to a new view, way of seeing my materials/tools, and usually finishes the painting. These moments are worth all the doubt and pain, because I can never go back to where I was in that moment again. I moved through it to a new level and it’s on to the next. I don’t seek these moments out willingly, but I try to allow them to occur.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Since Hurricane Helene, Asheville, NC has changed forever. All my favorite spots along the river are completely destroyed, and I am not sure if any will be coming back.

We would go shopping downtown for a day, drink at some great local breweries like Wedge, Burial, and Greenman. A mandatory trip to Biltmore during the holidays and Sierra Nevada brewing would be in order.

We’d do a day hopping to all the galleries down and exploring the River Arts District (RAD). My gallery/studio is located in the RAD and was unscathed from the hurricane.

We’d go on some hikes of various intensities, and mountain bike at Bent Creek.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My co-parent and life long friend, Lindsay. She has supported my career the entire time and continues to believe in me no matter what.

Website: https://www.creativekevin.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creative_keving/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-giriunas-99b27820/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089302058122&mibextid=LQQJ4d

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@creative_keving?_t=8a0SbocZW1b&_r=1

Image Credits
Kevin Andrew