Disabled Art – Part 2 of Our Interview with Andrew Reach

This is the second half of an interview we did with an inspiring artist named Andrew Reach. For part 1 of the interview please go here. In this second half, Andrew talks more about the creation of his art, and what inspires him.

D&P: How has your disability affected your relationship with your partner?

Andrew Reach: Well we had a really close relationship even before the disability, but the whole thing has just brought us closer. Like last night we went out, and we have been in love with each other all these years, and just very good friends too, and I am so lucky to have someone by my side, and have that support.

D&P: I have been lucky too, I can’t imagine things without that support. Ok, now I think we’re getting into your favorite subject. Why is art so important to you?

Andrew Reach: If I didn’t have the art, I’m not really sure what I’d have right now. It gives me my lifeline to the world.

D&P: What makes your art so special?

Andrew Reach: Oh I don’t know… I don’t know that it’s special. I’m very overwhelmed by the effect my art has had on people. Oh… Bruce just came in, and he said I have to add to my last answer. He said I do my art because it gives me hope, and he’s right about that. It gives me a lifeline. Ok, so what makes my art special… when I started doing the art, Bruce got me the equipment – the computer equipment I use to make my art. We started putting the art up on the walls around the house. It was just for us, but a neighbor saw it, who has a friend with an art gallery, and she was blown away by it, and a week later someone from the gallery came by and they gave me an art show. They just said it was different, like no one had done this type of thing before. People were telling me they just hadn’t seen something like this done digitally before.

D&P: I’m wondering… if you do something with your hands like painting it’s easy to be very expressive, but I’m wondering how easy it can be to do that with a computer.

Andrew Reach: In the great abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, what he said is that he was channeling the art, like it was just going through him to the painting. He started using sticks as tools instead of traditional brushes because for him it was a more direct thing from the brain to the canvas. I like that a lot – but you can’t quite do that with a computer, but you can in a way though. Somehow I get myself into a zone where my mind, and Photoshop, and the mouse just all seem to work together in unison. I get myself into a trance-like state, and that’s where a lot of the intricate patterns in my art come from. It’s almost kind of a meditative state, and when I get more relaxed, the brain just starts to open up for me somehow.

D&P: Like an escape from reality.

Andrew Reach: Exactly, it’s like that. It’s always a process of being in the moment, making my art.

D&P: So do you do your art in a one-time shot?

Andrew Reach: No, no, it takes me a couple weeks. It’s kind of a chaotic process, because I have to stop in the middle. I do it in bits and spurts, and that maybe is better, because it ends up being something different from where I thought when I started.

D&P: So a little bit of a journey.

Andrew Reach: Right, right. And it’s never perfect, I mean that’s something to realize. There never is really anything perfect – in architecture, art, anything.

D&P: How long did it take you to become proficient with all this software where you felt like you could really express yourself.

Andrew Reach: I’m still working on it! Photoshop is like a bottomless pit! I kind of just started using it – I was making these cards for Bruce where I cut things from old vintage ads – and I learned how to cut things out, learned about layers, and slowly learned the basics. Photoshop for Dummies actually helped and the rest was trial and error. I had used CAD programs before (computer assisted design) so I had some basics with this kind of thing, but it was very challenging to really get proficient. It took a few weeks before I really felt like I could make anything of merit in terms of art. After about 6 weeks I created what I felt like was my breakthrough piece - Lost in a Place Where Pain Does Not Live. That piece was the first one where I really felt like I could tell myself that I was able to express myself with my computer. Actually what you see on my website, www.andrewreach.com, is all consecutive, in terms of when I made them.

D&P: You know your work almost looks like paintings.

Andrew Reach: Yeah a lot of people wonder about that – “is it a painting, is it not a painting?” It’s very exciting, to be at a time with this technology, it’s like the very birth of this type of art.

D&P: So my next question I think you answered, which is how long it takes you to finish a piece.

Andrew Reach: Well it depends but typically a couple of weeks.

D&P: So I also wanted to talk about the rewards you get from your art.

Andrew Reach: Well really just getting things into the world and seeing how people respond to it, and seeing how people are inspired by it. That has been not only a surprise, but now seeing the joy it brings to people, it brings a real feeling of satisfaction also.

D&P: In what way do you feel like you are giving back to the disabled community?

Andrew Reach: I guess exhibiting the art and having people see what I can do. And also now I have all this knowledge of what I’ve gone through, and now with this art therapy project I have, there’s going to be a lot of work with it, but I think it’s important to do.  If someone else can be helped like it has helped me through computer technology that would just be wonderful.

D&P: I’d like to talk about the art therapy in a moment – but I want to ask what your favorite piece is.

Andrew Reach: I don’t, I don’t have one.  They’re all my children.

D&P: How long have you had the website?

Andrew Reach: Well, after my first show, I realized people wouldn’t have any way to see my art, so I just got Dreamweaver for Dummies, got a domain name, and set it up. You know, people said I shouldn’t put all my art up there, but I want people to see it! With the world, and technology these days, I feel like it’s important to have something like that.

D&P: I feel the same way

Andrew Reach: Your website is wonderful, by the way.

D&P: Thanks. Yeah, I’m trying to reach out to people, be inspiring with a positive message – that the world doesn’t end when you become disabled. So, I want to ask about your exhibitions. Do you attend all of them?

Andrew Reach: Well, I’ve been very very lucky to have received all the recognition I have. Some of the exhibitions have been outside the area – San Francisco, Chicago, Vermont, and so I haven’t been able to attend all of them. I’ve only been to 3 exhibitions of the ones I have had art in. I mean, it’s ok because the art is what’s there and what speaks on my behalf.

D&P: Now, I want to ask about your Art Therapy Program. First of all, how did you get involved in this?

Andrew Reach: Bruce and I started seeing a primary care physician, he’s a really nice guy, and when I first saw him we talked about my issues and the art came up. He told me the Metro Health people (the clinic I was at) about my artwork. Bruce and I had come up with the idea to start a foundation called Reaches Far. So this is a dream of ours to do someday. A way of giving back the art to help people. So when Metrohealth told us about the very special art therapy program they have, we hoped to be able to help. So the discussion started around wanting to bring computer technology to help people, and I was able to connect them with the right resources with Photoshop, and with Epson, for a grant for software and a printer. This place has the oldest art therapy clinic  – since 1967 – and I just talked with them and now we are seeing about how we can go forward with integrating the computer technology into the art therapy they do there, which also involves music, painting, crafts and pottery. The clinical Art Therapist’s role is to be a facilitator, a sort of bridge that helps patients walk across to a new side of consciousness that had never been opened up before. The process is healing and the physical manifestation is the art produced, each telling its unique story of perseverance. Bringing in computers would give the Art Therapists another tool to work with and considering so many young people who are computer literate, the computer could greatly benefit some patients.

And so eventually for 2010 it’s my hope that some of the work done by people in the art therapy clinic can be exhibited alongside mine in a special exhibit to promote and educate the public about Art Therapy and the Healing Arts.

D&P: Is this a volunteering thing?

Andrew Reach: It is, it is. There is an artist-in-residence program, but it’s not really something that I would be able to do as it requires the artist to spend a week with the patients, so what I am doing now is strictly volunteer. And it’s going to take a while to get it fully integrated, to develop the libraries of images to have available for people to use so that the people in the art therapy clinic can do this.

D&P: So what has given you the most satisfaction: your current art, or your architecture before you became disabled?

Andrew Reach: Oh, well, I guess right before my surgery I was kind of at a high point of where I was with architecture, and I’ve come to terms now with not being able to do that any longer. I guess I can’t choose between the two: the satisfaction comes from just being able to do something. Being an artist is a great thing – I mean, I’m reaching a lot more people with my art than I ever did with my architecture.

D&P: What about your hobbies?

Andrew Reach: I listen to a lot of music, but not when I’m doing artwork. I would say music and reading.

D&P: Pretty typical for someone who is limited in their physical capabilities. Do you have any big plans for the future?

Andrew Reach: So with the art therapy program, and the exhibits, I hope my story gets out to more people because I think it can inspire. I mean if people see what went on with me – maybe they are going through something themselves and they can be inspired by my art.

I also wanted to make sure to mention, my computer broke a couple of months ago, and I didn’t have the means to get a new computer for myself, and had no prospects, and was getting to the point where I was feeling hopeless again. Our dear friends Jimmy, Karen, and Julie bought me this new computer. They’re very special people – you know, there are guardian angels out there. So I wanted to thank them.

D&P: Well, this has been great, and I want to say thank you for spending so much time with me and in being so detailed with all of this.

Andrew Reach: Your welcome, it’s been a pleasure.