Thanks for coming! This site is now in archive mode.
To view and purchase current work, please visit andrewgodwin.com
How Many Ways Are There to Live, 2023
Oil paint, charcoal, papier mache, and found text on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Found and collaged text reads:
Let's explore the brain and nervous system and how they come up with a definition of
their own main characters They can be totally fictional Fights for dominance
'On one side I AM A PEACOCK, A SWIRLING MASS my bills paid
the other end of the spectrum a hermit. resounding nothing, I feel like I don't
behave in "correct" ways. There is no time to dwell on
the known and potential risks and benefits The most up-to-date information on
a billion people in the world I was tired of being afraid. So I'd decided
It's not that you need to have all things people are talking about There is a lot of information
I've had to struggle not to absorb those moods, moments, and movements
But a glitch in my brain didn't know if my work would SUCCEED!
What if we acknowledged those fears, As if it were a normal thing for
what it means to be human. No artificial light. "The Light Comes from Within"
any idealist who will fight Sometimes you don't need the how for whatever comes next."
I'm still learning how I know what I'm made of."
The Fool, 2023
Graphite and found text on handmade paper
18 x 24 paper, 19 x 25 inches overall
Found and collaged text reads:
After Laz’s cigarette was lit We evolved to seek. We are Mother Nature
Sometimes you need more PROOF sometimes you need less.
Mix It Up Every Now and Then it does not require
a step-by-step sequence of events tailored to your specification This race covers the entire
Pain Cave So why do we do it It’s really foolish. I’m gonna go TRY IT ALL for the
EXPERIENCE In the dark ages, we would always have a full belly.
What gets us into the weird Second Draft What inspired you to begin
Sometimes I look in the mirror, and I’m A KIND OF DEJA VU
I dug very deep inside myself. I slapped my face Ha ha. It’s a PATTERN
WELCOME TO EARTH The first mile
you think you can’t go on, you’re familiar with the “pain cave.”
“But it’s kind of fun, you know; you might find your connection You prepare to go on forever.
At one point in my travels, UFOs usually show up. “Accept the day as it comes.”
experience it exactly as it is, when the plan falls apart. You will learn how to live
CONTROL IS AN ILLUSION, 2023
Printed vinyl on magnetic sheet
3 x 10 inches
Edition of 4 plus 1 AP
Exit Interview, 2023
Oil paint, charcoal, pastel, and found text on wood panel
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Found and collaged text reads:
What do we know about the incredible hybrid, The universe is mostly empty. Yet, We meant every note. I didn’t have to look to know
“And what brought you here?” When our turn came, we all Stay in the network. “To remediate the soil,” a little bit of something for everyone I know. Including me!
What time period are you talking about? “I don’t know,” For a long time there was this impossible dream of The Sun “We got lost and ended up in the artwork for which we don’t have a category. reflecting the light of the universe. the real, real deal. On the other side of the tactile, musical, and physical- me mumbling, and then shouting, Get it, y’all, GET IT!
Welcome to Earth, 2023
Oil paint, charcoal, graphite, and found text on wood panel
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Found and collaged perimeter text reads:
One of the magicians I've been researching says art can be anything, 'IF WE LOSE THE LAND, What forces can sanctify an object, style gets one only so far. Who do you make your art for? Wow! That's a big question! I love to believe that I actually don't know [laughs], all I'm trying to do is paint the shit out of it... What I connect to most is the way They thought I didn't speak It's impossible to know what might be happening in the world in the unfolding present moment, My friend in undergrad said, "Yo, you try to control or understand it, you'll miss the truth what separates you from WHAT OUR EYES SEE. WELCOME TO EARTH has become more urgent 'I HAD NO IDEA THERE WERE SO MANY, Like many people my age I originally thought I was going to Get the truth today- but everyone has it now, it's not enough for you to Tell my about the symbolism I'm part of where everything comes from the voices and the experiences and the insights This is what we should hope for,
Too, 2023
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Lately my work hasn't been about a single thing, or several related things, but about very different things happening at the same time. Somehow all the various sources still become a single work with its own life. I made this after going to the Big Ears Festival and also thinking about a friend who is receiving gender-affirming care. It's ultimately about neither of those things; at some point it becomes its own thing and I lose understanding of all the ways it could be read, all the meanings it could have. Isn't that great?!
Spring Fling, 2023
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Spring Heat, 2023
Oil paint, acrylic gesso, and papier mache on wood panel
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Secret River, 2023
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Under the Mountain, 2023
Oil paint and papier mache on wood panel
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Untitled (48), 2022-2023
Graphite on handmade paper
18 x 24 inches
Carbon Cycle, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Okra Fingers, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Private Collection; Seymour, TN
National Juried Exhibition, Arts & Culture Alliance, Knoxville, TN, 2023
Bloodlines, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
National Juried Exhibition, Arts & Culture Alliance, Knoxville, TN, February 2023
Guts (gumdrop), 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
"Our body is a community, and the trillions of non-human cells in our body are even more numerous than the human cells. Without them, we could not be here in this moment. Without them, we wouldn't be able to think, to feel, or to speak. There are no solitary beings. The whole planet is one giant, living, breathing cell, with all its working parts linked in symbiosis."
Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Art of Living"
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Gratitude, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Reunion, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
I was running across a field hearing my shoes on the dirt and started thinking about how all of our past is down there and it nourishes our present and becomes our present and the sky I see is the sky they all saw.
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Solid Succulent Joy (lemonhead), 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Chit-chat #3, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Every little worm and crawdad and newt and bit of mud under a rock in a stream is part of the water cycle that spans the entire earth. Part of the chit-chat series, exploring connected systems in nature.
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Chit-chat #2, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Birds migrate through multiple generations and their calls go out everywhere and mix together all these new leaves and new birds and old leaves and old birds mixing at springtime. Part of the chit-chat series, exploring connected systems in nature.
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Chit-chat #1, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Trees communicate through their roots and through the fungal network sending electricity and nutrients and secret code through the soil which means that there's this constant stream of camaraderie. Part of the chit-chat series, exploring connected systems in nature.
Honorable Mention, group show Wild Life, curated by A1LabArts, 2022
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Jury comments: "When a visual work causes you to linger, it is something of a challenge for all of us as visual artists. And I’m so intrigued because the painting allowed my imagination to wander a bit. Thinking about different experiences, atmospheric things, microscopic things.
"You’re asking the viewer to come in further. I’m drawn to this kind of soft aura… Something about this kind of work would make it easy to pass by, but this kind of work asks you to come in further, and there’s just such a magic to that. That’s kind of hard to capture. This kind of work speaks to that spiritual sense, and I don’t say that a lot. It kind of flows in a spiritual way of being. We thought you captured the uncapturable in a really special way."
Lake Anna, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
We once jumped in the lake in the snow Bolero blasting from an iphone and dunked our whole bodies in and soon after retreating found that warmth radiated from our guts and we realized that before we couldn't feel the temperature of our insides and now we knew something about what was in there.
Group show Wild Life, curated by A1LabArts, 2022
Group show Art Salon, curated by AIA East Tennessee, 2022
Summer #1, 2022
Oil on wood
14 x 11 panel, 15 x 12 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Summer #2, 2022
Oil on wood
14 x 11 panel, 15 x 12 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
The Wood, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 16 7/8 x 20 7/8 inches overall
Not for sale
Group show Wild Life, curated by A1LabArts, 2022
Untitled (35), 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Two Pair, 2022
Oil on wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Space 1.8, 2022
Graphite and acrylic on cotton rag paper mounted to wood
16 x 20 panel, 17 x 21 inches overall
A Home to Meet Our Needs, 2021
Graphite on acrylic ground on wood
38 x 38 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
1. Are humans part of nature or separate from it? 2. Is the earth suited to us, or have we adapted to earth's conditions? 3. Do we find certain things beautiful because of their objective appeal, or have we adapted to value certain types of beauty? 4. What does it mean to be alive in this real but tiny speck of the cosmos? 5. Does the "Truth" matter except for what we individually perceive and understand? 6. Ultimately, what and where are the boundaries between humans and everything else, and what- if anything- does this mean?
The work oscillates between recognizable geometry (circles, spirals) and sweeping, connective fields, shifting scale while maintaining a richly textured intimacy.
Best Work by a Member, Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, 2022
Group show Art Salon, curated by East Tennessee AIA, 2021
Tide Pool, 2021
Graphite on acrylic ground on wood
16 7/8 x 20 7/8 inches overall
Wikipedia: Tide pools or rock pools are shallow pools of seawater that form on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pools are habitats of especially adaptable animals that have engaged the attention of naturalists and marine biologists, as well as philosophical essayists: John Steinbeck wrote in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, "It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool."
Confined to a shallow pool at low tide, creatures adapt and dwell in a new habitat. The tide changes, moves the contours; creatures adapt and move and refine themselves.
Open Water, 2021
Graphite on acrylic ground on wood
22 1/4 x 52 1/2 inches overall
Photograph by Bradford Raines
1. Freedom and terror: a body in the open ocean. 2. Entropy and order: cyclical water without boundary. 3. Softness and hardness: open water swimmers smearing protectants on their skin so the water doesn't chafe; water shaping stone. 4. Singularity and repetition: another wave, another wave, shaped in the wind and moon. 5. Intimacy and ubiquity: in a billion reflections of light there is still each singular ray, it's own identifiable piece. 6. Breathe through these seeming contradictions; they are one.
Group show Art Salon, curated by East Tennessee AIA, 2021
High Desert, 2021
Graphite on acrylic ground on wood
17 1/4 x 22 3/4 inches overall
In High Desert, small, angular strokes of graphite drift across an airy field, barely held to the surface with subtly implied divisions. It is an exploration of both literal and remembered landscapes and our place within them, specifically from an isolated cabin in New Mexico.
Group show Art Salon, curated by East Tennessee AIA, 2021
Migration, 2021
Graphite on cotton rag paper, in four parts
16 3/16 x 48 3/4 inches, plus frame
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Not for sale
Migration explores our shared condition at the beginning of 2021: finding our place in the world, moving from the ground to the sky to broaden our vision, zooming in and out to see that every detail is connected to form our shared whole.
Honorable Mention, group show GRIT, curated by A1LabArts, 2021
Big Breath, 2020
Graphite on acrylic ground on wood
30 x 30 inches, plus frame
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Not for sale
In Big Breath, small, angular strokes of graphite billow and swell into an airy field, held to the surface with subtly implied divisions. It is an exploration of the idea that the air we breathe is everywhere around us all, but also something inside us and very intimate: the necessary breath, the poisonous breath, the intimacy of breath, all our breath taken from the same sky, released to the same sky.
Group show GRIT, curated by A1LabArts, 2021
After Hours, 2020
Graphite on acrylic ground on cotton rag paper mounted to wood
12 3/16 x 16 3/16 inches
Not for sale
In After Hours, small, angular strokes of graphite billow and swell into an airy field, barely held to the surface with subtly implied divisions. It cultivates a meditative response, exploring both the expansiveness and intimacy of the night sky.
Silver Spring, 2020
Graphite on acrylic ground on cotton rag paper
12 3/16 x 16 3/16 inches
Photograph by Bradford Raines
Private collection; Knoxville, TN
In Silver Spring, small, tilted strokes of graphite form a pulsing, undulating image, both watery and woven. It is an exploration of rhythm, repetition, patience, presence, and the ever-changing nature of our world.
I'D RATHER BE AWARE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT, 2021
Printed vinyl on magnetic sheet
3 x 10 inches each