Shay Andrews is an artist living and creating in the Bay Area of California. They are currently in college to obtain a Bachelor in Fine Arts for Pictorial Arts with a minor in Theater Arts. Growing up in the Bay Area, Andrews was surrounded by beauty, tragedy, and the intricacies of human nature that inspire them to this day. Initially finding themself within the theater world as an actor, Andrews found their love of storytelling. As Covid began in 2020 and theater became more inaccessible to them, they then brought those ideas of narrative driven works into different mediums, and therefore their art practice.
Experimenting with crafting narratives through paintings, alcohol marker drawings, and scenic design they craft innovative and engaging worlds that capture the eye and emotion. Through implementing interactive additions to their work, they invite their audience to make themselves a part of the story, finding themselves within the brushstrokes.
Crafting worlds both realistic and fantastical, they find solace within the dark and gritty contrasted against the lightness of heroism and hope. Exploring narratives using Gothic and Victorian themes of love (particularly queer love), loss, and the secrets that lie there in, Shay Andrews seeks to encapsulate these core human traits in intriguing and dynamic ways. They often use allusions to mythologies such as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian, to illustrate the long history of human beings and their innate will to create and communicate with each other. Utilizing connection through interactivity and finding the reflection of oneself within a story, Andrews fosters intrigue and investigation of both the self as well as the systems and structures we as humans have created around us.
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