David Andrews is an artist with vision. I first met David at his well attended opening reception at 50 Arrow Gallery in Easthampton, MA last year. This was followed by a show, some months later, with an opening in Springfield MA at Art for the Soul Gallery in Tower Square.
Like a sculptor, Andrews crafts his message by removing layers, piercing natural, found materials and written compositions to isolate, and render truth you can feel. Combing words and drift wood, abandoned wasp hives and headlines into insurgent intimacies; framed poems that are halfway between confession and revelation.
This summer I had the chance to speak with Andrews about his work. We toured the Conte Wildlife Refuge in Hadley, MA., where Andrews connects with nature, as a regular part of his process. Andrews makes certain to remain productive as his portfolio and profile continue to grow.
Andrews is originally from Chicago, where chaos was a constant companion.
In Chicago, it was survival. Everything was about survival. I came up in an area, 101st and Cottage Grove, South side of Chicago, right. And was recruited into the gang and taught to survive that way. That’s what my piece Fight Circle is all about. I ended up having to keep a pistol like some white people keep an American Express, Never Leave Home Without It.
Found natural materials and found writing are his raw resources, yarn from which reflecting spells are woven. Andrews’ way of seeing, born of the interface of family and city, a kaleidoscope of extremes, allows his work to pierce the superficial and speak directly to the soul.
As it happens, Andrews’ urban aesthetic allows him to present well enough to fit in, in the Valley. He blends in well with the mass of students in our 5 area colleges (really 13 if you count the smaller private and community colleges). Disguises can be essential for any black artist, for reasons political as well as economic. And if you happen to recognize Andrews, it is because he works at the Smith College art museum.
The new challenge for Andrews lay in encountering whiteness on a level he was unprepared for. This new chaos: navigating phantom friendliness of fair-weather allies, mostly white, but not always.
Coming out here, it was culture shock. I had seen a lot of white people before, but I was able to go back to an area where there was a lot of black people. When I first got out here, man, I didn’t know where any black people were. And there wasn’t this fear of what gang member was going to try to get me. Now it was a fear of which one of these white folks in the woods was going to try to get me.
As Tracy Kidder wrote of the postcard-perfect Pioneer Valley in his Pulitzer-winning, Home Town , “shake it and it snows.” Kidder never asked if the juice is worth the squeeze. David Andrews intends to find out.
David Andrew’s page at Facebook
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