Andrew Abbott followed a unique trajectory into the art world: He was once a student who admitted to cheating in art history and claimed only to have taken the class to look at the pictures; now his quirky paintings grace the walls of Lamarche Lounge in Smith Union.
Born in Nova Scotia, Canada, Abbott moved to North Carolina, Nigeria, and Jamaica because his father, Bowdoin alumnus Richard Abbott '71, worked as a geologist. Abbott attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, then transferred to UNC Wilmington, where he graduated in 2002.
"I started to draw more pictures to distract myself from the evils that lurk around Wilmington, North Carolina," he said.
Upon graduating, he enlisted in the army. "I told them I didn't want to kill so they made me a medic and put me in Louisiana for most of the time," he said. Since then, he has traveled for the past year and spent six months in Puerto Rico.
"I think [traveling] influenced me because the memories are always strange and have a way of making me want to go back to those places for God-knows-what reasons," Abbott said.
Abbott's paintings in the exhibit are influenced by a number of artists, but are uniquely his own at the same time. He enjoys the works of Glen Brown, Busch, Dali, Giacometti, and Henry Moor; their influence is apparent in his own pieces.
He uses a variety of media in his art.
"For a surface, I use scraps of paper that I find interesting or any other piece of paper that any random person might hand me—such as an advertisement or something. Then I just kind of paint on it, tear pieces away, repaint until I see something I like and then just add detail," he said.
Abbott has always been interested in art, especially drawing.
"People I hadn't seen in years have reminded me of things I used to draw as a child such as trains and mountain bike frames," he said. "My interests in art and medium have been constantly changing throughout my life, but for the last few years it's been a pretty consistent thing I've been doing with the eight-and-a-half by eleven-inch acrylic and mixed media things."
His experience in the military adds an additional dimension to his work. "Several paintings were done during my stint in the military and you could say that they were influenced by that experience, if only for the reason that several of them were painted on actual military documents that I was given to dispose of, but instead drew on them," Abbott said. "I can interpret some deep personal meaning in them, but honestly I was just trying to make something pretty at the time I was painting them. Some of them look like they were influenced by my time in the military and that's okay, they probably were on some subconscious level."
Unlike a parent who cannot pick a favorite child, Abbott has no problem naming his favorite piece in the exhibition. "My favorite piece is the 'Moulin Rouge Massacre,' which depicts a Paris club scene involving a dancer done in the style of Lautrec, with the exception that she is carrying an automatic weapon. I like thinking about what she is about to do with the weapon and why."
Abbott's exhibition is on display in Lamarche Lounge in Smith Union until February 28.