Mike Andrews

Sampresoni, 2009 3ft x 5ft

the artist at work

Mike Andrews, one of our teachers at SAIC, has returned from a recent residency in Seoul. Before leaving for Korea Mike mentioned a new series of tapestries he would be working on during his stay, he describe them to me as "Sheila Hicks on acid." With out seeing the work I immediately got it.

Sheila Hicks is a fiber artist known for both her large scale fiber installations, popularized during the 1960's-70's fiber movements, as well as her small notebook size tapestries. Hicks would carry a small tapestry frame in her bag; essentially a sketchbook allowing her to immediately document and process new techniques, ideas, colors, and fibers that she came into contact with during her travels. Andrews approached his tapestries in a similar manner. The titles of his tapestries such as MIA wears Anna Sui for Patagonia, Black Cherry, DJ Dubu, and Proto-Redvine bring to mind a psychedelic image of Sheila and Mike getting their weave on while listening to K-Pop and I think there was a lot of candy and kimchi in the mix.