ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is about connection. How small pieces come together to form partnerships. I’m interested in the unexpected, and moments. These moments tend to be created through felt sense nuances that become altered and abstracted. I consider these collaged painted moments as captured spaces and homes that live abundantly within, and around us. I enjoy the quickness and energy of painting & collaging on small surfaces. The process is comforting, structured, and feels like organized chaos. I have a deep love for creating layers made from paper pieces and paint to share an array of narratives and emotions. I started the Once Upon a Time Series to explore loss and honor the sheer confusion, humorous weirdness, and sadness of daily life. I am contemplating the things that surround us and that abruptly drift away either harshly or silently.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Andrea first emerged on the scene as a spunky Midwesterner from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After earning a BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art (circa 1994), she relocated to Chicago, Illinois in 1995 and ever since has continued to make a home for herself and now with her family. In addition to years of artful makings and intense participation in the Chicago food industry, she received an MA in Counseling Art Therapy from Adler University in 2006. She currently works as a Licensed Art and Play therapist in her own private practice, Artful Growth Counseling PLLC. Integrating her worlds as an artist and an art therapist have been a natural coupling that happily allows for even more accumulation of art supplies and scraps of paper. She continues to have an enthusiasm for collecting all things tiny and anything vintage.
© Andrea Picard