NORWICH, United Kingdom — There have already been articles written about Andres Amador, a unique artist focusing on Playa paintings and beach art. However, I would like to take you on a journey into the creative mind of this talented artist and find out how, from a mere thought, in just a matter of hours, the results are unique masterpieces that lasts for a fraction of time before Mother Nature takes control and turns Amador’s art into a blank canvas to commence all over again.
Andres Amador Interview
During an interesting chat with Amador, my intention was to look beyond the exterior and into the genius of the creative mind that lies within.
Your artwork is unique, would you say that it is, perhaps, an insight into your soul?
Definitely. The art is location in nature, its impermanence, its physicality, its inquisitiveness. Definitely these are all parts of the experience that my spirit is drawn to.
Voyager’s Heart: Andres Amador – Earthscape Artist from James Yager on Vimeo.
Your images conjure a spiritual feeling. Do you meditate prior to commencing your work?
I like to take a moment to be still, connect barefoot to the earth, breathe deeply and internally chant a few mantras for a few minutes. Perhaps I will do a few yoga postures and, if I really feel spatially aware, even do a few calisthenics from Kundalini Yoga and The 5 Tibetans. I find that simply being at the beach makes my spirit feels grounded and when I am in motion all my thoughts are focused, making the act of walking a meditation.
Have you always been interested in geometrical designs and did you feel always at one with the earth?
I have always been spatially connected. My sense of direction and spatial relationships feels strong. I loved creating with Legos and playing with geometry – the visualism of it and the creative possibilities. I appreciate precision, but in recent years my art has become less restrained.
I was raised in San Francisco and had a thoroughly urban upbringing. From the age of 7-16 I attended and then worked at a Boys and Girls club camp, which established an affinity to nature, dramatically shaping the course of my life.
Why do you choose the beaches of San Francisco as the foundation for your artwork?
A particular beach in San Francisco was the place I saw in my head when the vision of doing this artwork came to me. Ocean Beach in San Francisco remains a fabulous place to work, especially when I want people to be able to see it live.
If there was a place anywhere on earth that you could produce your amazing images, where would that place be?
Where would I not want to be? My biases go away when I recognise that the true mission of art is to lift the spirit. Certainly my spirit is lifted by what I do, and my heart’s desire is to offer that experience to the viewer. If I were to speak of a personal desire, I would like to create my art on remote and dramatic landscapes like those in Ireland and Scotland, on isolated islands far from land.
Andres Amador shared an exclusive image with us entitled “Shine”. It depicts a scene where there are rays coming from a circle within which is a flower/mandala. The idea is that each circle also contains a mandala. In the words of Amador:
We are all that mandala, sending energy out into the world, affecting and being affected by all those out there. The artwork is a reminder to shine ones light and let it touch everyone and illuminate everywhere that it goes.
Amador is the kind of an artist who, can painstakingly carry out his art to ultimate perfection. He can then just sit by and watch it get washed away by the ocean after a mere few hours, at most. Is the satisfaction perhaps in the creation of the artwork rather than the finished product, it must be. Not many artists would be pleased to have their artwork destroyed after such a creation.
