We recently connected with Andrew Hawes and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew , thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

My mixed media animations were born from my very active imagination combined with a complete lack of any real traditional visual art skills whatsoever. I was never able to draw or paint with any more skill than a second grader really, but I always craved to see some new worlds in music videos.

So many visuals for these songs that I loved so much seemed more focused on making the artists look cool or hot or whatever, and it made me feel there was such a void. I always wanted to see the emotions in the music expressed without putting any single person’s face to it. I feel the inspirations and emotions from my favorite songs to go so far beyond the individual and much more into raw human experiences. A well-lit flashy video of the person who wrote the song just looking cool never really captured that for me. After years of thinking animation is so impossibly difficult and way too cool for me, I decided to just start already and see what happens. Again, I had no real skill to create the worlds and characters that I had in my head.

I found stop motion and mixed-media after some searching, and the imperfect nature of paper and old magazines, the kind of child-like look of a character made out of photo clippings, the rips and folds that happen naturally as you collage, and the texture of the paper grit and printing dots just lit me up when i started to work with them. I also noticed that I loved more stuttery, rough and unpolished animation mock-ups more than their perfectly polished immaculate final products. In mixed media collage I found a way to create wild worlds with limitless possibilities without needing a massive team or budget. Anything I can dream up can be made with some paper clippings and my camera now, and I can let the rough and “wrong” exist in them freely.

Animation process is so time consuming, but I try to keep an improvisational element to it. I’m always inspired when artists’ work is wild and free, but I think it’s easy to be very cautious when animating because it just takes so long to make a piece. You tend to want to make sure the idea is tasteful and solid before you embark on that long journey of actually bringing it to life, but I try to commit to the crazier early ideas I have so as to keep some of that child-like boldness in it.

I never really thought it would be interesting to anyone else, but I put the work out alongside my photo/video work and was surprised that other people seemed to “get” it. I think in the absolutely daunting sea of incredible art we’re bombarded with every day, it can be refreshing to see something a little more raw and unique.

Additionally, the skills from learning all this stuff translate to my more commercial clients all the time. I do stop motion animations for major brands with their products, and my video transition game has improved greatly by understanding all these new effects and things about frame rate that I never would have used without animation. I never would have thought making these weird things would help me book higher paying commercial work with my camera.

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 back background and context?

I am a mixed media animator and photographer/videographer based in San Diego, CA. I create unique and raw visuals for musicians by pulling from photo, collage, video, stop motion, and drawing techniques.

I think what sets me apart from others is that I mix together these techniques in a way that makes people stop to try to figure out how it was made. The textures are rough and the motion is strange and sometimes seems even “wrong”, but theres an underlying sense of intention behind it all that ties the room together.

Using tactile mediums is refreshing to us all who are exposed to a sea of perfectly polished digital works and now even AI generated work is taking up a bigger portion of what we see. I think people crave to touch something real, or they even just like seeing someone else who’s taking the time to work with something real. I love digital art too, and my work is a blend of both styles, but man I really think people are craving working with their hands and organic processes again.

The almost child-like style of the work I think helps people’s guard go down. It’s not trying to be perfect or really cool, it’s funky and itself and non-threatening. I’m most proud of its uniqueness and approachability.

I love when clients trust my strange vision and we build a world together for their music or brand. When I show people the work or am collaborating with someone, its almost like getting someone to do something they used to love to do as a kid. They seem happier and lighter. That’s my favorite thing about making these things and that’s my favorite thing about what it does in the world.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I know any goal that I have now will likely become a reality eventually and then I’ll already have a new goal. I just keep chasing how to create the visions in my head and I know that they’ll always be one step ahead of me, so I don’t expect to ever completely get there. Making the work and learning and trying and failing and trying again is all I care about really.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Without a doubt, putting out work that I believe in and that is high quality has been the best source of new clients for me. I’m horrible at marketing, i really don’t like to sell myself at all, but I always notice when I’m putting out high quality work then I will get inquiries. I don’t even have a big social media following at all and that’s still true.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.andrewhawes.media
• Instagram: @yeeehawes