Biennial Artist: Andy Rosen
Run Time: 3:19
Andy Rosen (United States, born 1974), Let’s not and say we did, 2008, mixed media with fake fur and wood, 73 x 114 x 33 inches. Lent by the artist.
My process for making work is as close to dreaming as possible, while still being awake. That is to say, it seems to mimic how my mind creates images, people, and events while it dreams. I often start out with an image in my head, a strong gut feeling or an inclination to recreate something I’ve just seen. The image or feeling tends to act like a signpost offering direction or a place-holder for a page in a book, as I search for the right materials to build what I want to build. What I’ve found, however, is that this initial image that I just previously had such a strong urge to create, is almost never what the piece ends up looking like. More often, like an image in a dream, the work evolves into something entirely different. I may spend weeks constructing a piece only to realize that it must be rebuilt into something else. This process creates new directions and new pieces that could not have been discovered without that previous labor. As impractical as this process may seem, I’ve begun to trust that what I do and what I’m looking for has little do with practicality.
I’ve been living in Maine for most of my life. I love it here and my artwork is specifically influenced by my interactions with the landscape, the lifestyle, and community. I live in a small 900-square-foot home in an old neighborhood that abuts a light industrial area and a small bay. The bay is home to a cemetery, an oil company, and a ship refueling dock. I don’t live too far from the traditional picturesque beauty of Maine’s rocky coast and pine forests. Every day Winslow Homer-esque landscapes are buffeted by the inhabitants’ industrial endeavors and traversed by commuters on their way to work. It is hard not to marvel at this strange juxtaposition. It is, quite literally, fuel for my work. Most of my materials come from scavenging this landscape or reconstituting fragments of my home renovation projects.