Things I Sometimes Trip Over

Being academically trained in science rather than in art, I spending a lot of time trying to expand my visual knowledge by looking at as many images as I can. Most of the images have about zero residence time in my memory, but I’m sure I learn something from every picture I look at, even the ones that (in my humble and uneducated opinion) suck. And every once in a great while I find something worth hanging on to.

I happened upon the work of one Andrew Young (who goes by Drew, apparently) via a Facebook page on Modern and Contemporary Art, one of the many sources I use to bombard myself with imagery.

Young’s work focuses on “lost and found adolescence,” a subject that I can relate to entirely. His images are chaotic and colorful and seem to be contemplative and dynamic at the same time. One image I found particularly gripping is The Usual Lengthy Visit.

The Usual Lengthy Visit (Andrew Young, 2010 or 2011)

Here is some sad bastard failing to connect at a meaningful human level while the glorious excitement and experimentation of youth is going on all around him. Forty years ago, that sad bastard was me, living behind a wall that I only now am able to start tearing down.

Sometimes you go looking for stimulation or knowledge or just an image to enjoy and what you end up finding is a mirror.