Andrew Brischler: Happy to be in the studio, Let’s focus on Art!

The current Covid 19 situation gives Andrew Brischler a chance to fully settle down in his studio and devote his attention fully to his works of art. He mentions that this period allows him to “Forget about selling it,” “Forget about what’s ‘good.’ Forget about what will sell. Just Make Art.” He is 100% focused on his artwork. In the “BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT” series, we can see strong repetition of patterns from one piece to another.  He mentions that he started a meditation practice at the beginning of March, and those sort of shapes dovetailed with the meditation practice. I totally agree with him, during this specific time, we do need to find a way to express our ideas and keep ourselves entertained to avoid depression. 

Brischler draws from pop culture and mass-production. He centered his focus on title text from movies, magazines, and posters. From the discussion we had with Brischler, he mentioned he really likes horror movies, and other forms of visual art. He likes to turn the interesting part that inspired him into his own new form of art, such as the work of Zombie.

The first impression that I got from his work, I feel like his work is very similar to commercial advertisements. However, from the conversations we had with him, he intentionally leaves scratches to show that his work should live in a studio. By looking at every painting of him carefully, we can see the scratches in the base layer of his artwork.      

Brischler purchases the 300 pound, the heaviest watercolor paper, as he feels like those papers are better for being able to move things around and pin them on the walls. For his work, he lays down several layers of  super-matte medium (“not at all the way you’re supposed to use it,”), however, he decided to use this way in order to help him, so that he can make the color float more on the page. Brischler also works with mixed media, such as colored pencils, graphite, oil, graphite, and acrylic paint. From his introduction, I find it is interesting to see that mixed media can be appeared just in one single artwork. From his artwork, I start to question myself, and I feel like I should try to incorporate different kinds of media into my work. By doing so, I can focus more on the journey of art. 

Brischler also mentions that, “a lot of the way that my brain works inside my work is the work that happens while I’m working on other things”, meaning he got lots of inspiration and creation while he is watching an horror movie or doing other things. Those ideas that pop up can be affecting the artwork down the road, even a year later. Brischler’s ideas resonant with me, inspiration does not appear when we want it, it comes gradually from our daily life experiences while we are doing other things.