the art of andy greenaway

It was 1997, the year of the handover in Hong Kong (where I was working and living).

     I was already planning to take my family back to Singapore around half way through the following year. But there was a problem. I had a huge tax bill and no money to pay it off. So I decided to paint and make the money up as an artist.

     There was a lot of scorn from some of my colleagues at work. "You can't just become an artist," they'd say. "Why ever not?" I would reply.

     Undeterred by the cynicism, I started painting. Very quickly I found a style that was unique and compelling. It involved creating texture with latex glue.

     I created about 10 pieces, took some snaps and headed down to Lan Kwai Fong to show them off to a few galleries. The first gallery wasn't interested, but the second one was. They offered me a deal and the gallery space for December and January. I had less than 6 months to create 35 pieces. There was an awful lot of late nghts, but I managed to get all done in time, and get my marketing machine going, too.

     I appeared in magazines, the press, on radio and on TV. The show was tremendously successful. I sold about 70% of the pieces and secured around 10 commissions.

     I raised close to HK$400,000 which allowed me to pay off my tax bill, my credit card bill and take my family on a little holiday to Cebu.

    

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Since the show in Hong Kong, I've dabbled from time to time in different styles. I've taken the Zorkmen and have turned them into a couple of cartoon series. One of the series was published in an advertising trade magazine called Campaign Brief Asia.

     I've also created smiley art, which, as you can imagine, features art with lots of smiles.I love portraits, so I'm creating a few which have first been distorted through photo booth. And I am currently dabbling with abstract compositions. If you want to buy one, let me know.