The motives of Andrew Brandou’s characters are rooted from his childhood experience of reading comics and drawing cartoons, while simultaneously being exposed to more mature and disturbing subject matter. Horror and violence permeated into his own cultural vocabulary, as psychedelic drugs became a part of his own experience.
Using color, texture, and imagery, Andrew Brandou creates an organic narrative of abstract elements and interconnected pieces. Andrew Brandou depicts the architectural development of Modern California houses, including his own house on the Hollywood hillsides. Remnants of furniture, a fireplace, or couch are juxtaposed with foreboding skulls and blossoming flowers amidst pools of red or layers of gold leaf. Part metaphor for change and growth, Andrew Brandou incorporates a color palette reminiscent of Japanese prints, using gold leaf, and a cohesive use of reds, grays, and blacks throughout his works to communicate action or mood.
Andrew Brandou works as the artist Howdypardner, creating work based on inspiration from children’s books and LSD, Charles Manson, and opium dens. He is a graduate of Otis Parsons and lives and works in Los Angeles. While working for his bachelor’s degree at Otis Parsons, Andrew worked at the legendary Paper Moon Graphics card company. In the early 90’s he showed at galleries such as La Luz de Jesus and Zero 1. He continued to finance his personal work by working on a series of animation projects including The Simpsons, Rugrats, Duckman, and Spongebob. He was also an active illustrator for the recording industry, working for such artists as The Carpenters, Hole, and Tori Amos. Recently, he acted as an animator for “Realms of the Unreal” a documentary film about the life of artist Henry Darger. His work has been seen in the New Yorker, Nickelodeon Magazine, and he is featured in the current issue of Bark Magazine.
(note: bio notes taken from the John Levine gallery site)
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