BE EMBARRASSED BY YOUR WORK
Andrew Hem shares a unique way to help you decide whether or
not your work is improving. File it under ‘A’ for awkward...“When I was a senior in college, I wanted to
look at my freshman work and hopefully think
it was awful. If I didn’t feel that way, I
would’ve known that my growth wasn’t as
much as I’d expected. So, when I became a
senior, and got out my freshman work, I was
glad that couldn’t barely even look at it
because I was so embarrassed.
When you first do the work, it looks good
to you at that time. But over the years, you
train your eye to spot out the good. Everyfive or so years, I look back at my old work
hoping I will see these pieces as
embarrassments like in college.
As you get older, changes becomes slower.
You won’t be able to spot out the same
drastic improvements you saw when you
were starting. So the biggest breakthrough
for me has to be as a student when I
compared my first year with my last. It was a
rewarding feeling to see just how far I’d come.
I’m constantly seeking out that same feeling.”work. You’re never entirely sure what’s
real and what’s not, what’s literal and
what’s metaphorical. The purpose of
these snapshots of dreams is to make
you stop and think.
“You adapt things that are familiar
so they f low out of you in a unique
way. I would label my art as stylised
figurative works. That’s because I draw
my inspiration a lot from Old Masters
and anime. These are two of my loves
and mesh up into my paintings
without my even trying. It just came
naturally – like moving to figure-
drawing from graffiti.
“Good art is something that moves
you, that evokes emotion. Whether it
makes you feel inspired, or gives you
butterf lies in your stomach, it stops
you right in your tracks.”
YOUNG FLIP
“When I was younger, I tried for
years to be a B-boy. My friends
would learn windmills in six
months. It took me two years,
but mastering it is one of my
greatest childhood memories.”GLIDING
“I saw people in Cambodia living in
horrible conditions, but they were still
able to be happy. I wanted to capture
being young without a care in the world.”