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

Andrea , appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’ve been creating community art projects for over ten years that have meant so much – it’s hard to choose! I’m currently showing a large installation at Parrish Art Museum where I’ve been a visiting artist guiding over 150 students and community members in making prints inspired by my own practice. I’m bringing all of myself as a visual artist and printmaker and educator – their work and mine are woven together in a brilliant blue installation running down the” Spine” of the museum.

The spark was my recent site-specific project “To Belong to the World,” that celebrated our place in nature at a local community garden, as part of the Parrish’s Road Show. I’ve often collaborated with other artists, choreographers, musicians and people in the community, but for this project nature became my collaborator and it was a mystical experience. Throughout the previous year, I gathered seasonal plant life from the gardens and exposed it in the sun on cosmic milestones from the Winter Solstice to the Autumn Equinox. Nature can be an unpredictable collaborator, but in the end, I felt a sense of awe – it felt like the world had truly met me to make this work, it was transcendent.

Now as a visiting artist, I am sharing my process with young people and we are making prints on the press and in the sun exploring these connections between humans and plant life and asking questions, such as how can artmaking deepen our connection to nature? Artmaking deepens our connection to everything. It’s wonderful to see the surprise on their faces when they pull a print off the press. It’s projects of this scale that lift us to new discoveries.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a multimedia artist based in Eastern Long Island, New York. My art practice runs along two parallel tracks: a solo studio-based practice and one that is collaborative and community-driven.

Soon after college I began looking for opportunities to present my artwork and proposed installations in empty storefront windows in Seattle, start-up businesses and performances in galleries. Many years later after my son was born I was wanting to engage with the communities where I lived in Long Island – I created portraits of towns told through their residents. It was before “placemaking” became part of our public vocabulary. I became comfortable speaking before town boards, communicating with officials and business-owners, and advocating for the importance of art. My projects were self-initiated – I just followed a vision, introduced myself to people and found the resources to manifest them. This paved the way for invitations to come, for which I’m grateful.

My public community projects and collaborations facilitate connection. Now these multi-faceted projects weave the bodies of participants in choreographies and public installations. The projects range from immersive video and sound installations in museums to live and drone-recorded dances on the beach.

My studio practice is based primarily in mixed-media printmaking. I love cultivating the unexpected, and you never know what you will get. I’ll ink up my hair, press it to plexi, make patterns and run the material through the press. It’s in this experimental play that I find my happy place. I have several series that take a more traditional form – prints, photographs, collages – these can stand alone, while connecting my process to a larger vision.

All my work is informed by my body and the bodies of others – what is it to live in this vessel of flesh, moving, experiencing, alone and together. The discoveries I make alone in my studio become a rehearsal for what I bring out to share with the public. I often see myself as a creative weaver in my community- I work with many arts organizations, community groups, and schools, and tailor each unique project I’m involved in.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

A society that values art and creativity starts with early education in school. Teaching problem-solving skills, critical thinking, manual coordination. It’s not just decoration on top of academics. You have to get your hands messy. Creativity is a muscle and it needs to be exercised or it gets lost. I teach many adults who are trying to recover that lost connection and there is such joy when they do.

A free society values the Imagination. So many creatives are neuro-divergent. We find possibility everywhere, and it’s not easy to fit that limitless energy into a society that seems to put everything into boxes. Education, health care access, museums and libraries – these need public support. Artists give back so much.

There are so many hidden labor costs which artist fees rarely cover – production costs & costs of living, paying taxes. These factors generally are not taken into consideration, but it’s incredibly challenging to make a living as an artist. We put a lot on the line for the sake of sharing our vision. Supporting artists allows us to share our skills to contribute to a thriving society.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Nearly all worthwhile projects of consequence arrive after overcoming difficult phases in their creation. The demon of doubt is ever-present. Learning to trust the process despite the doubt is necessary. Sometimes you are gifted a project or work of art that comes with such ease it seems like a gift from the art gods. But I have to remind myself that even those came after years of much struggle and work and persistence through the messiness of unknowing. You need a high tolerance for discomfort and uncertainty. You just keep showing up and making the work and it’s glorious when you see the seed burst out from the darkness and radiate and resonate with others.

Posted in my studio are the brilliant artist Corita Kent’s “Ten Rules”. Some favorites:
“Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for awhile.”
“Nothing is a mistake – there’s no win or fail, there’s only make.”
“We’re breaking all of the rules, even our own.”
“There will be new rules tomorrow.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andreacote.com
• Instagram: @andreacoteart

Image Credits

Photo by Benny Migs – (Artist Headshot)
Photo by Gary Mamay – (Installation in Parrish Art Museum)
Photos by Dennis Maroulas – (Garden Installation Shots)