JAVA June 2019

that wasn’t his own. He struggled with compromising
in order to maintain a separate career of artistic
freedom. But while he prefers to execute his own
ideas and work for himself, his fine art and commercial
illustration both strive for approval from others. Andrews
believes much of his drive in both freelance illustration
and personal art-making stems from a deep-rooted
wish to please his parents and family.
“I’m doing it for an audience,” he confirms. “I want
people to have some kind of reaction to what I’m
doing and feel something.”
Andrews was glad to have the opportunity for a
homecoming exhibition, and dedicated this chapter
of work on display to his desert upbringing. While
carrying many connotations, Petrichor suggests the
smell of rain, which reminds him of the desert.
Andrews’ older work frequently featured oceans,
deciduous vegetation, and structures representative
of the East Coast, often Victorian in style, illustrating
his break with Arizona and pining for the unfamiliar.
He describes his newer work as “Southwestern
escapism,” and he spends more time exploring motifs
that remind him of where he grew up. The desert
has become romanticized again, and his longing
manifests in pigment and narratives.
Elements of Andrews’ work always bring him back
home, to heavy metal music and the horror movies
his mom would watch. Meanwhile, other elements
are prompted from his contemporaries, influences,
and his everyday environment. Images and feelings
are collaged together and presented to viewers as an
open-ended puzzle.
Andrews is more interested in letting others discover
meaning from his work than deciding it for them.
Whether it is a firefighter extending a hand through
dense smoke or a man eating a Big Mac, Andrews
seems equipped to combine visuals and familiar
archetypes and turn them into chimeras of questions.
(Those who want only a single meaning from Andrews’
work can visit his Instagram account, @esao, where he
designs rebus puzzles that are not open-ended.)
That is not to say he doesn’t spend a fair amount
of his time creating work outside of ambiguity. An
example of work with a specific concept in mind is
a small but powerful piece presented in a display
case in Petrichor titled “The Waiting Game.” In
the piece, exposed remains of a genie rest inside
a bottle. Andrews discloses his inclination toward
scientific reasoning when exploring the realities
behind fantasy, while dissecting a common storyline
to reveal the fate of a supernatural deity whose
dependence on a mortal being proves fatal.
“What if nobody came? How long does magic last?
From a scientific point of view, what if so much time
passed – we’re not talking thousands of years, but
if millions of years passed – if the sun turned into a
super-giant, and if Earth just didn’t exist anymore, it
was just a rock, dead of life – is he still waiting? Is
he waiting for eternity? What if he waits so long that
the magic is gone?” He quiets, and then reasserts his
point. “It’s beautiful, tragic, and very real.”
Romantic abandonment, which Andrews draws as a
storyline of “The Waiting Game,” is found throughout
Petrichor, in his brushwork and his eye for detail
in storytelling that provokes a second, third, or
sixth look at the work. The moods within the show,
coupled with Andrews’ Poisonous Birds book release
on the night of the opening, mix sentiments of
coming home with saying goodbye and letting go.
After wrapping up a major chapter, Andrews looks
forward to taking people from the gallery and
bringing them into his surreal narratives within a
real-world setting. He is preparing to take on larger
projects, both three-dimensional and functional, and
enter the realm of public spaces. He aims to manifest
his storytelling in public art projects and is readying
himself to dive back into computer-rendered art, for
3D modeling this time around.
Perhaps it is the idea of a greater impact that
motivates him in this direction, or reminiscing about
systems in which people choose to lose themselves.
Or maybe it’s his desire to break beyond a canvas,
a phone screen, or an inauthentic reaction, to form
deeper and more sincere connections with people.
Petrichor
Through August 4
Mesa Contemporary Art Museum
esao.net
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