It's Not Just a Phase with Andy Kehoe July 31 2024

 Andy Kehoe is a traditional and digital artist residing in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

As a gallery artist, Andy has shown in prestigious galleries such as Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Thinkspace, Roq La Rue, Copro Nason, Outré, as well as featuring in Scope Miami Art Basel.

Andy Kehoe's work serves to transport viewers to otherworldly realms and evoke a sense of wonder and introspection. Kehoe's work is characterized by its dreamlike quality, with richly detailed landscapes inhabited by enigmatic figures and creatures. His paintings often depict mysterious narratives that look to inspire and encourage the viewer to create their own stories.

With each new creation, he invites audiences to embark on a journey of discovery to explore the depths of his fantastical worlds; where the boundaries and constraints of reality are left behind and the power of imagination is boundless.

Artist's statement:

Phases is an exploration of the multiple states of my life over the past few years, represented through the moon cycle. New and exciting endeavors were started, while the deep losses of family and animal companions were heavily grieved. This show has been a way for me to reminisce about the past, find some footing in the present, and grapple with an increasingly uncertain future.

Andy's show Phases opens August 9.

Interview by Bernadette Butterworth. Images supplied by Andy Kehoe.

Welcome back to Melbourne Andy! It's a special privilege to have you able to visit us in person again and be here for the opening of your latest show. It’s always a pleasure having you on our walls - what can we expect from you this time around?

Thanks! Always a pleasure to work with you. I am very excited to be back at Outré with a new show and to be visiting Melbourne again for the opening. This is my largest collection of original work since my show with you in 2018 so I put everything I could into it.

The last time we caught up with you was in 2020, needless to say a lot has happened since then! How have you been and how has life, you and your practice changed since then?

Yeah, we’ve lived through way too many unprecedented events since we last spoke. Things have been pretty wild here in the States and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. It’s exhausting. We’re just trying to get by as best we can and hope for more normal, stable times ahead.

Professionally, I’ve had a more pleasurable journey. I recognised I was burnt out from years of back-to-back shows and was in need of new venues for creativity to explore. I got super deep into digital painting over the last 4 years which has been unbelievably rewarding. Having a new medium to learn and develop lit the fire I needed to find joy in the creative process again. I create a digital painting each month and have been able to watch myself grow in the medium piece by piece.

On top of learning a whole new set of technical skills, digital painting also helped me relearn some fundamental art making skills that had fallen off over the years. I was able to focus on some disciplines such as colour and light in a more forgiving medium. It has been so helpful to my overall growth as an artist and I carried many of those lessons forward in the work for this show.

The title of your latest show is Phases. Could you walk us through what this and your latest body of work means to you?

I have always used my work as way to process personal experiences and feelings. These last four years have been a lot. A lot of good and a lot of really bad. I faced more personal grief in 2023 than ever before in my life. We lost our oldest cat, Sir, in July of last year, and then our Siamese cat, Gremmy, a few months later. Gremmy was an especially tough loss for me. He was a special one.  My best buddy and my little familiar. A month later, my beloved father-in-law passed. He was such a huge part of the family and his loss has left a void for all of us. It was a rough year.

This show gave me an opportunity to reflect on this time and see it as whole, with all its beginnings and ends. I tend to live in my head and my head tends to reside in the future; thinking about what’s next and what I need to do to accomplish those things. This show allowed me to give myself time to reconcile and celebrate the past whilst also making an effort to appreciate where I am now, living more in the present.

The moon has been an integral part of my work for a long time as I feel such a deep connection to it. I decided to use the 8 phases of the moon to capture these ever-changing cycles of life. Each painting uses a different moon phase to express specific experiences that are universal and yet unique to everyone. Such as starting a new venture, remembering old companions, stopping to live in the moment, or reflecting on grief. I really loved having the opportunity to look deeper into the symbolism and hope others can find something for themselves in the work.

We noticed a recurring theme in this body of work depicting a chasm between worlds, whether through reflections on water or otherworldly portals. Are these elements more reflective of your personal inner world, or do they comment on the external world and its complexities?

It’s definitely a mix between the external world and internal reflections. In general, I’ve always utilised portals to express my desire to break out of the banality of the mundane. To find some deeper magic and meaning in the world and discover there is something lurking under the surface of our perceived reality.

That said, they also serve a specific purpose for each individual painting. In the painting 'Into the Mythical' the portal is a threshold to an unknown path and a new adventure. I’m a creatively restless person so I thrive on the excitement of entering new creative territories. I have been able to cross that threshold numerous times these last few years. It’s an emotional boundary to cross but it also pertains to the practical application to make it happen. Taking those first real steps across the threshold.

You are known for your story telling and ability to convey deeply emotional pieces that people resonate with - what is something you hope people will feel when they see your latest body of work?

I have very personal and purposeful motivations for the imagery I create. It is often very cathartic, particularly work dealing with emotions that are hard to express externally, like grief or depression. Those feelings are unique to me when I look at my own work. As with all of my paintings, I hope viewers are able to lose themselves in this world and inject their own life experiences and feelings. I want them to create something unique to themselves. Each painting should be an expansive world in which the viewer is able to find their own story. That’s where the magic is for me.

With the world opening back up have you found any personal epiphanies for you and/or your art practice?

Everything is still so wild and unpredictable, it’s often difficult for me to find any sort of solid footing for reflection when the future seems to be chaos. Personally, I need to step out of my head and be more comfortable in the present, even in the chaos. I was able to reflect and ruminate while painting for this show which was very therapeutic. I even have some pieces that deal with reflection and living in the moment. I guess you could say that I had the opportunity to reflect while working on paintings that reflect on reflecting. Too many levels of reflecting? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Do you work through multiple projects simultaneously or are you a one-thing-at-a-time kind of creator?

I tend to focus on one main project at a time while also doing a bunch of random things in the background. Usually focused on fine tuning my skills or expanding into new mediums. For example, while working on this show or my monthly digital painting, I am also working on improving my writing and video editing, learning 3D modelling/sculpting, and working on new products for art conventions. I truly wish there were 10 more hours in a day.

You manage to capture such detail and feeling in your works, it’s pretty astonishing! What draws you to a particular animal, colour or reference image as a subject for a painting?

I have lived in the world of my work for so long now that things tend to come naturally. When I started this show and decided on the theme of moon phases, almost all of the ideas came to me in a span of a few days. The colours are part of the initial concepts but I always leave room for conceptual rethinking and improvising. I usually work on the characters last so they have the most room for change.

For example, 'The Sage Rascal' was initially mapped out as minimal design with a limited colour palette. I planned on the sky being a simple, plain light blue. Then I decided to add warmth to the background and the blend of warm tones and the blue was much more pleasing. It was one of those satisfying moments of knowing I absolutely made the right painting-changing decision… it can and has gone the other way so you need to enjoy these moments.

The dark teal and yellow combination of the trees and ivy were locked in from the beginning. I knew it would look great and was excited to finally paint those yellow leaves and see it on the panel after months of seeing it in my head.

What’s a tool you simply could not live without and why?

My Mac Studio and Cintiq display. I use it for all my digital creations and found it was an incredibly useful tool for planning compositions and for finalising character designs when working on this show.

Finally, what's next for you? Any exciting projects on the horizon you can share?

I have a Krampus themed group show with Copro Gallery in December that will be fun to work on. I have some conventions lined up — CollosalCon East in September if anyone wants to come see me in Eastern Pennsylvania!

I’m looking forward to having the time to get back to learning. My big focus will be getting back to Blender, taking steps towards animating my work. It’s always been a dream and I’m getting closer and closer to crossing that threshold.