Art Articles & Reviews

} Andrew Dick By Robert Amos ”They’re exactly the same!” On a recent visit to the Pompidou Centre in Paris, I saw lots of drawings and sketches from the famed Surrealists - Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Joan Miro. The little homemade books that Victoria’s Andrew Dick was showing me were in every way their equal. Currently Dick has been presenting his efforts at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, a new storefront gallery at 2516 Douglas Street near Bay. This is the sort of gallery that doesn’t have regular hours or even a telephone, and mostly I have been gazing at the shows there through the front window. Today (January 20) is the last day for Dick’s show and he’s promised me he’d be there from 1 to 5 pm to open the door. A few of his hundreds of colourful little drawings are in Value Village frames, but shoals of them are simply taped to the walls. Each is a unique adventure in style and medium. When pressed, Dick told me that some of them are characters - “like an illustration” he said - and some are “fine art drawings” - the more abstract ones. There is a sureness and confidence in even the most bizarre of Dick’s drawings, and a mystery too. The artist is a man of few words, and even less given to explaining himself. So I sat him down and interviewed him - his first interview! - to try to discover the wellsprings of his practice and symbolic language. Dick is 21, “born and raised in Victoria”. He admitted that “it was at Esquimalt High School where I started getting into art... graffiti art at the Trackside”. That was before the Rock Solid group took that project to new heights. Dick remembers the inspiration of his teacher Lorna Reid at EHSS. “She really did get the ball rolling,” Dick noted. At home, Dick’s father set an example. “My dad was a modeller - aircraft were his specialty - and he taught me about colour and different kinds of paint.” Dick pointed out a collaborative sketch in the show. His father had drawn the top and Andrew the bottom of a scene of battling monsters. This is one of many examples of the surrealist drawing game, “the exquisite corpse”, in the exhibition. “Before art I was into basketball, but really art took over,” Dick recalled. “After high school I knew that I had to do it forever.” Next, Dick took a break from school - not at all an unusual strategy - and spent the next year doing a lot of painting. He had a studio then, and was “getting more into painting canvases.” One acrylic, about two metres square, attests to this period. Now that the studio is gone he again concentrates on the smaller scale. “I feel you can get really intimate with a small piece - like a whole ‘nother world right there in a spot on the paper.” Dick also pursued his research in studying books on the Surrealists, with whom he has discovered a natural affinity. When I mentioned the art of Paul Klee, Dick noted that Klee was not an inspiration but he had come to note a similarity in approach. This year, Dick’s girlfriend is in Japan and the pop art and packaging she has been sending him from there inspire his odd, and oddly familiar, images of kiddy cartoon characters. There really is no telling where his subject matter will come from, though he makes it his own in the process. Dick hasn’t - yet - travelled to the art centres of the world. His drawing, which is so close to cartooning, is often published by him in homemade chapbooks. Nevertheless, he surprised me when he said he’d never been interested in “comix” and graphic novels. Dick’s drawings are entirely without narrative continuity. He seems to be a true original. As we made our way around the show I noticed some images which are based on rubbings of patterned surfaces; cutouts pasted on coloured paper; and even an old print (“from my granny’s house...”) which he has painted over almost entirely. No two pieces are alike, yet they partake of the same unerring compositional sense and confident colour choices. Dick has volunteered to work with grade six students at Central Middle School this year, and some of their efforts, echoing his style, adorn the gallery windows. A quick comparison reveals that while there is a similarity, Dick has a special knack. “Some do have a lot more to say than others,” Dick admitted. “The best are just like a sunny day... and sort of... it comes out.” This mix of talent and innocence is thrilling to discover. Let’s hope Andrew Dick can find the encouragement to continue what looks to be a promising career. ___________________________________________ Copyright © 2005 Robert Amos Robert Amos is an artist and art writer who lives in Victoria, B. C.. He can be contacted by e-mail and you can view his paintings at www.robertamos.com