ARTIST STATEMENT - JW ANDREW

  “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.“ Andy Warhol

I am an artist and visual storyteller who creates unique, rich, multi-layered, photo-based, digital montages. I consider my original, raw images more like “photo sketch books” to be manipulated, layered, combined, and decimated in post-production rather than finished works.

Although I use a wide range of state-of-the-art digital technology in my creative work, I strive to capture and embrace mistakes to achieve more of a handmade, grungy, dirty aesthetic in my finished images. The raw emotions and feelings within a body of work are more important to me than “reality.”

My artistic practice is influenced by a wide, ever-growing range of creative styles, including the stylish spray art of the Miaz Brothers, the neo-expressionism of rockstar artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, the grunge typography of surfer/graphic designer David Carson, the abstract, iconic photography of 4AD album cover designer Vaughan Oliver, the existential photographic psychodramas of Roger Ballan, the European pop art of Sigmar Polke, the cool photography and styling of Kristian Schuller, the Neo-trash of Thomas Schostok and even the bold, saturated, kinetic cinematography of Chris Doyle and Wong Kar-Wei.

The ultimate aim of my art is to inspire an emotional reaction and make people feel who is behind the camera. Although intentionally created with dust, scratches, blur, and imperfections, my finished images are available as top-quality, limited-edition giclee prints on museum-grade Hahnemühle paper with a certificate of authenticity.