Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew Alba. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Andrew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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.

Ive been drawing and painting my whole life, I think it got serious in highschool when i had a solid group of friends and a good art teacher. This teacher and group of friends really planted a seed for me. Right after highschool i went into construction. i didnt have time for higher education but I continued hanging out with that group of friends at the local university going to the figure drawing sessions every Saturday getting lunch afterwards and talking about art. Around the age of 24 after a work related injury left me alone in a house for 9 months I realized just how important painting and drawing was for me. It was then that I decided I wanted to pursue it full time and after. After some deliberation and as well as living circumstances I decided that I wouldnt seek out a higher education in the field and explored the history or and and the practice of it on my own.

Andrew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a self taught painter from Salt Lake City. Ive been drawing and painting my whole life. I believe my first encounter with art was in my grandparents home, their house was adorned with prints of mexican painters. One that always stuck out to me was diego rivera, i would stare at the flowers he painted for a long time while my grandparents were in the kitchen making tortillas. I will always have a place in my heart for his work. not only the nostalgia behind it but it was also the first time I saw brown figures that looked like myself or my family in art.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think all artists need to be comfortable with rejection. so many proposals and submissions that we spend alot of time on only to get that typical response from curators, gallerists and other organizations. I think at the beginning it can be hard to deal with the rejections but eventually you just kinda of numb out to it and continue to do the work that you want to do.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Communication is a top reason that I am an artist. I think that there are so many spaces and holes in the spoken language and art takes up that absence of words. It allows the viewer or audience to create their own work in the space that the artist has arranged for them to use their own imagination. See people have response and see the work the only way that they can see it has been very rewarding to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrew-alba.com/
• Instagram: andrew.alba