We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Norris . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned to paint mostly by trial and error. I had a decent idea of how to draw things but for many years I was just making art without a solid foundation of the fundamentals. Sort of throwing stuff against the canvas and seeing what stuck. To speed up the process of learning I could have sought out more informational material on sites like YouTube or paid sites like Schoolism. Oh, and practicing drawing every day. It’s absolutely essential. Focused practice does make one a better artist. Drawing is that essential skill to have if you are trying to build a solid foundation in painting. That is, if you’re trying to make your art seem real, or even imaginatively real.

The obstacles that stood in my way were a need for money during that in between stage of making art and not selling enough to live off of it. When this happened, I had to find a job. I found a few over the years that didn’t suck the life force or creativity out of me. Time management was key for me when I was in this situation. However, I didn’t pursue any formal training during this time because I wanted to simply keep painting and experimenting. Had I more time or money I probably would have.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My name is Andrew Norris Thompson. I’m a fine artist and muralist living just outside Denver. I started making art around 2010. The work started as ink and colored pencil on paper. At first it was just a hobby until I decided to make some prints of my modest drawings and try and sell them at Wakarusa Music festival that summer. I did very well in my sales effort, going from campsite to campsite, meeting people and introducing them to my fledgling work. Fast forward about twelve years and I am selling original canvases, making murals and hosting an art podcast. I still make and sell merch based off of my paintings as well, mostly through my website and via communications through social media but I still go to the occasional festival or live painting gig.
With the work I create I try to speak to the depth and breadth of human experience. One that borders on the unspeakable imagery found in dreams or in psychedelic experiences.

My work has evolved a lot over the years as my skill has become more refined and practiced. I would like the storyline of my art journey to encourage and inspire others learning artistic (or any other) skills. I think it’s a great example of how much potential for improvement there is inside all of us, if we are willing to put in the effort.

I think that I’m most proud of the fact that I have evolved my art to reflect my evolving style and tastes. I find it a bit boring to stick to formulaic production of art, whatever the medium. A good analogy of my brand is a genuine “chef’s special” with every new painting, or an entirely different menu every few years. Not all that great for marketing I guess but I’m very grateful that enough people enjoy it as to make it my full time work.

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

I’d say that the most rewarding aspect is the reactions I get to see from people who interact with the images I create. Even if they don’t want to take it home with them or support me in a monetary way, it’s always nice to get to know people a little bit via the pigments on my canvases. It sparks conversation, thought patterns, feelings and a short connection between us. Also, the fact that I get to live my life and make my career on my terms is something for which I’m very very grateful. In fact, I’d say that the lifestyle of being my own boss and being able to set my own expectations and hours was a large part of why I went down this path. I get to stay home most days and transmute my own psyche and experience of reality by moving pigments around on a canvas- and people like it enough to buy it!

Finally, I also have an art podcast called Artsy AF. (I’m on a bit of a hiatus currently due to having my house burn down several months ago, but it will be back in August.) The podcast is super rewarding as well. I get to meet artists from around world, and chat about creativity, business, life and philosophy. It’s a great way to get to talk to some other creatives I truly admire. It’s also been received quite well in the community. I think it has a lot of potential to reach creatives as a resource that helps them engineer their art careers, through the conversations I have with successful artists. Very rewarding to hear positive feedback from a small passion project like that.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This is an easy one because it just happened. I was living in Superior, Colorado when the Marshall Fire destroyed my home, along with about 1000 others on December 30th 2021. I lost several original paintings, all of my merch and art gear that I had collected over the past decade, my studio, everything. It was traumatic hour of packing some essentials and rushing out of our house (I live with my girlfriend and our dog) to safety. I have to say that we were very lucky. We lived next door to a friend whose parents let us all stay at their place for three weeks, free of charge. Our other friends let us stay at their parent’s condo for a week afterwards. We received so many helpful donations in the form of money, clothes, food and were able to find a new place before February.
All that being the case, it was still very difficult psychologically and logistically to get back to a place where I felt like creating. The absolute mindfuck of having everything taken away and then receiving everything we needed almost instantly, was actually difficult for me to process. It felt like I didn’t earn any of the love and support I received. This is one of those things that I had to “unlearn”; that the value of human connection isn’t actually predicated on receiving a reward for your time or effort and that it’s ok to accept unconditional help and support.

I think the biggest thing I lost was momentum and it was very hard to not think of “what could have been”. I think I fell off of the meaning and purpose tip during that time we were in limbo when I didn’t have the means to create. Life felt somewhat meaningless and confusing after such a strange and stagnant time. At the end of that line of thinking, however, the conclusion I came to was “so what”. Things are different and a little surreal? So what. You lost irreplaceable art, some you made with friends? So what. You can’t find a meaning or purpose to fuel your creativity? So what.

The reality was (and is) that all those things were temporary anyway and that we create our own meaning in life. Did my life have meaning after all of the loss and this strange, unconditional support rushing in to fill the void? I had to figure it out. I’ve come to a place where I’m not sure if life has any inherent meaning, but it’s still very important to find or create one.
For me, my resilience was tested on that existential level. I had to create my own meaning. The summary of this meaning is basically that it’s important (for me anyway) to transpose my experiences in to a creative act. That way it inspires others to do the same.
Our world is lacking this creativity in a big way. It is an antidote for the constant bombardment from consumer culture of what to think, how to feel, what to buy, what to pay attention to etc. We need people to be creative in more fields than just art as well. Science needs creative people to help save the eco system, for instance. My sincere hope is that by doing my best in creating things, that it has a positive ripple effect on reality at large.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://andrewnorrisarts.com
• Instagram: @andrew.norris.arts
• Facebook: facebook.com./AndrewNorrisArts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtsyAFPodcast