Sad Mag’s Family: Andrew Schick
This week in my blog about Vancouver artists, I bring you Andrew Schick. A fresh face on Vancouver’s art scene and one talented illustrator. Schick’s enthuthiasm and energy radiates off the pages of our Winter Issue. Schick shared some new work and we talked randomly about art and Vancouver.
New Work by Andrew Schick
Sad Mag: What do you think of drawing in the art world today?
New work by Andrew Schick
Andrew Schick: I think that drawing is really exciting right now. The need for an illustrator to have a cohesive style is fading and I think that is a good thing. Now (and probably always), the best illustrators are conceptually witty (first), and technically proficient (second). Artists like Jillian Tamaki, Noma Bar, Monsieur Pimpant and Andy Gilmore really stand out because they have a core idea before they dazzle you with technical virtuosity.
SM: What are some things you are looking forward to this year? Movies, books, art shows?
AS: Watching Where the Wild Things Are again, because it captures childhood so accurately and it made me cry like a baby. I am reading The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie right now and it is so jam-packed with beautiful images that I never want to put it down. The entire book is so dreamlike and it makes you want to paint and draw and read at the same time. I’m also visiting my illustrator-friend in Amsterdam (during the Olympics, actually), which will be rad. So I’m excited to check out the art/design scene over there, which is awesome apparently.
SM: Do you have any creative New Year’s resolutions?
AS: They are always the same: read more, don’t leave things until the last minute, and sign up for a credit card (or else the world will continue to not let me do anything). Actually, I’d like to work on getting a design internship at Vancouver Magazine for next summer, that’s my main resolution.
SM: In regards to the article you illustrated, how do you feel about the arts cuts? Do they affect you directly?
AS: They affect us all, actually. It’s frustrating that the arts are still seen as dispensable when times get tough, especially when you hear the political, rhetoric-ridden justifications from Kevin Krueger and Stephen Harper. I remember listening to either Kruger or Moore on CBC Radio, talking about how they’re making the choice to feed starving students over funding the arts, as if it’s an either-or scenario, when all the evidence shows that it’s not. Also, if I see another “Economic-Action-Plan” billboard, I’m going to throw up in my mouth.
New Work by Andrew Schick
SM: What are you working on right now?
AS: School. Now that graphic design/illustration has become such a trendy profession, it’s so important and really difficult to stand out. Right now, my only concern is a strong portfolio.
Make sure you check out Schick’s LJ and here are the images that Schick created for Sad Mag.
–Brandon