Voyage Minnesota Interview
Interview, Voyage Minnesota (2024)
https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/conversations-with-andrea-canter
July 3, 2024
Conversations With Andrea Canter
Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Canter
Hi Andrea, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I guess my tendency toward abstract art was first noted around age 4 when my parents were called to a conference at my preschool. Seems I had insisted on coloring a woman’s hair green on one of our worksheets, so the assumption was that I was color blind. My mom turned to me and asked why I had used the green crayon since she knew I could identify my colors easily. Apparently I agreed that I had never seen someone with green hair, but I really wanted to use that color. So perhaps my artistic leanings started with a degree of defiance more than creativity, (Maybe that is true for most artists?) Aside from my early explorations of color, my interest in art (and music) was fueled by my parents who would take me to concerts and museums from the time I could walk (maybe before). I liked to draw early on, and while we were living in Baltimore in the 50s, I took Saturday children’s painting classes for three years at the Baltimore Museum of Art. At the same time, my dad (a psychology professor) was taking adult evening classes, so we sort of started our art careers together.
One of my favorite memories of this experience was wandering with my dad through the Impressionists and Modern Art galleries at the museum after my Saturday classes, which explains an early interest in Matisse and Picasso. I wonder if I would have pursued art more seriously in my teens and beyond had we not moved in 1960 to Iowa City, an enlightened small university town without opportunities beyond public school –at that time–for budding artists. While my dad continued to paint in a basement studio, I moved on to photography with my Kodak Brownie. I enjoyed the weekly school art classes up to a point–the instruction was rather rigid and nothing like what I see in school art programs today. I took one (boring) oil painting class in high school and went on to study psychology and education in college and grad school. I did take Art History in college–which I would like to do again since my “history” education ended in 1970, and even then very little was included about post World War II art. Maybe that’s why today I am enamored with Abstract Expressionism.
During my 30 years as a psychologist with the Minneapolis Public Schools, I never lost my fascination with photography, my subject matter moving from documentation of family events and vacations to more interest in landscape and then the chaotic but energizing movement and color of urban scenes. My music interests (as a listener) grew into a love of jazz, at about the same time that camera technology (digital) allowed greater success in indoor photography. Soon I was taking my camera into performance spaces and developing a small and nonlucrative career in jazz photography, finding success in publications such as Downbeat Magazine. It was photography that pushed me back into painting after a nearly 60-year hiatus. More interested in abstract subjects with the camera, one day I thought it might be fun to start adding paint to my prints. Soon I was more and more interested in the paint itself and, while I pretty much abandoned combining photographs and paint, I began to concentrate on paint and mixed media materials.
Before my retirement from the school district, I had managed a few evening classes in clay sculpture and photography. More recently I studied painting and mixed media through individual mentors (Marcie Soderman, Deborah Foutch, Tom Tyler) and at community art centers in the Twin Cities. I also found peer support through a couple groups of emerging artists. In 2018 I moved into a studio in the Casket Arts Building (an old casket factory!) in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, where I spend most of my afternoons. Initially, most of my work was strictly abstract, spontaneous experiments with acrylics, housepaint, papers, cardboard, etc After a couple years (and probably 100 canvases), I found myself drawn back to my love of landscape, and, in addition to my “urban abstractions,” I began applying my paint and collage techniques to “imaginary landscape” works. Often these were somewhat impressionistic, but more recently taking a more abstract direction. I tend to work back and forth on these two general bodies of work.
Because I have retirement income (and still small income from photography), I have never needed to sell my work to support me or my studio, but my goal is to at least break even on my art. I’ve needed to learn about marketing and social media. I also feel that while I do this for me, art needs an audience to survive generally, so I apply to exhibitions and participate in public events as much as possible. I’ve had a few shows of my work at local art centers and community galleries, and have had work accepted into a number of exhibits in the area as well. My art sells enough to pay my studio rent and related expenses. In addition to the act of creating art, my favorite parts of this second career are the opportunities to talk about my art (and others’ art) with other artists and studio visitors. Particularly I love to interact with young children and young budding artists as they view my art and offer perspectives that would never occur to me otherwise. Plus, I love it when parents bring their young children to my studio– that’s how I started.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My road has been relatively smooth since I did not set out to make art a career. I have never needed to make my expenses through my art or justify my career choice since it was NOT my career choice. I think I would have had support from my family had I gone this route to start with, but it was never an issue. There certainly have been challenges– finding space in my home for a “studio” was challenging until I found affordable studio space in the area. Finding instruction tailored to a 60-something with little art background was another challenge. We are so lucky to have a number of community art centers in the metro area that target people of all ages, although it has been difficult to find workshops and classes for older, less experienced artists who are now seeking a serious career path. I have had less challenge finding an audience and colleagues who will take me seriously than I expected– there are more of us “second career” artists out there than I realized. Getting your art into galleries, exhibits, etc. is challenging at any point, and I am grateful that my daily living expenses are not tied to finding an audience! And as I believe is true of most or all artists, maybe the biggest challenge is believing in your own potential, talent, and adventure.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m basically an acrylic and mixed media painter– I create abstract and impressionistic works with paint and with combinations of paint (artist acrylics, latex housepaint, acrylic spraypaint), paper, and carboard materials (including newsprint, magazine, and homemade papers from friends), and other found and cast-off materials like bubblewrap, wood scraps, etc. Some of my work is largely collaged with paint, and some of my work is simply acrylic paint. I tend to work on medium-large size canvases (up to 36 x 48) as well as on paper and on wood panels. I have two general bodies of work– “urban abstraction” and “imaginary landscape,” and use my typical sets of materials with all my work. My “urban abstractions” are known for bright colors, heavy textures, and vibrant energy put down in layers that interact with each other. Some of my favorite works started out as earlier paintings, which I partly or fully cover with new materials that take advantage of the colors and textures from the old layers, now interacting with the new ones. I prefer to experiment, finding new ways of using materials and tools. As for my tools, I rarely pick up a brush. I use palette knives, shapers, and hardware store tools that might more resemble spatulas and kitchen utensils. And it’s cheaper to shop at Home Depot than Blick. I don’t deliberately create human forms in my work but I often find my most spontaneous drippings have human movement.
My “imaginary landscapes” using mostly acrylic paint tend toward a more impressionistic response to landscape, while my use of collage creates layers much like my urban abstractions. I also experiment with more nonrepresentational applications of paint that create a suggestion of landscape through form and color.
I think my experimental approach to materials as well as my combinations of color, movement, and texture help definite my work, which one of my customers described as “asymmetry with equilibrium.” Another suggested that my work could be the result of “if Monet and Miro had a baby…” I don’t seek to create such a “consistent” body of work where each thing I do is a variant of the last, although I find that happening at times. I do think each work stimulates the next in some fashion.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
At least in terms of where I ended up , what I remember most now is my post-painting class wanderings through the Baltimore Museum of Art with my father (ages 7-10). It was just fun to have some special time with him (without competing with my younger brother!), but also a chance to explore something that was important to both of us. This was my original art history class although limited to late 19th through mid 20th century art. I would look for the pot of flowers or the cat in a Matisse, find the figures in a Picasso.