~ANDREW GUENTHER : EAT THE LEAF, DIAMOND in the RAW . . .
EAT THE LEAF, half man/half robot: stay HUMAN. PABLO PICASSO, anybody ?
which brings us back, full circle . . . to ANDREW GUENTHER !!!!!!
the Brooklyn-based painter, and new ‘era’ . . . jewelry craftsman/designer/creative – who goes by the name: EAT THE LEAF.
ANDREW GUENTHER / EAT THE LEAF / @eattheleaf.
in his studio/workshop. GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN, NY. JAN 2016
ANDREW greets us, Oct 2015.
we, me & Theo, my son . . . went to visit Andrew several times over the past year.
we started off looking for a special custom gold EAT THE LEAF ‘signet’ ring for Kate, for her birthday, and along the way – we fell (deep) in love with his design work. Theo bought a handful. literally, of pressed stencil ‘message’ rings for himself, he bought me a sweet pinkie ‘SMILE’ stencil ring in gold, & then, a month later – even a lovely, lovely, lovely . . . “ALREADY DEAD” gold pendant . . for Christmas 2015 !!
yeah, that good.
Andrew’s house in Greenpoint, where he lives with . . TIFFANY GRACE POLLOCK, and their two young children, Easter Lily & Ivo.
we actually had been to Andrew’s house, his studio is in the lower level basement, once or twice before, probably for a Greenpoint Open Studio weekend.
Andrew showed us a handful of paintings – he happened to have around that day. they were beautiful, relevant, smart & crazy.
ANDREW GUENTHER ‘COLA’, painting, acrylic on canvas.
ANDREW GUENTHER, ‘mushroom’ detail.
one day I’m going to go back – and get me a painting, fer sure.
and who knew . . mushrooms could bite.
but today, we were on a mission, to find Kate a special custom-designed ring for her birthday.
Andrew’s . . EAT THE LEAF worktable.
Andrew’s EAT THE LEAF sketches . . .
really, so fun !! to get so close to his thinking, and thoughts. designs – in the making.
EAT THE LEAF designs . . at the moment of birthing / processing.
NASA . . on a human scale.
Andrew shows us some sample rings.
over time, we got a couple of variations on those ‘message’ stencil rings, one in gold for me that says ‘SMILE’, something I need to know, or at least remember. and a handful – for Theo in various hardcore ‘guy’ metals !! bronze and copper, something like that.
and – we decided on the ‘signet’ ring, at the left – to be the base for Kate’s birthday ring, and asked Andrew, since he actually knows Kate – to come up with some special designs just for her.
that was back in October, OCT 2015.
fast forward . . . JAN 2016.
KATE receives her ANDREW GUENTHER / EAT THE LEAF custom design ‘signet’ ring – in gold, and . . . she love, love loves it !!
it actually says ‘Smile’ too, like mine, except in script – interwoven into the almost free form face. very poetic. nice bond. and – it’s very Picasso-like, which I really like. it’s kind of a wake-up call. it’s very very interesting, style-wise. a sort of revival of someone who had ‘died’ re relevance & over-marketing / there, for awhile ?
it strikes me, as so curiously: very . . avant-garde.
it’s also interesting in terms of artists today being very multi-disciplinary, even craft-wise, right, right now. just like Pablo. the KANYE . . ‘life of Pablo’, even. including those who cook, make bread, or sew. take video. post social media. hand-dye. are into ancient indigo, flower arranging. raise animals, fly pigeons & honor bees. grow gardens. build boats & travel waterways. collect mid-century furniture. etc etc. huge wave of graphic design, both commercial & commercial/indie, indie book making, DIY publishing. zines. marbling. DIY script/fonts, street art. tea ceremonies. pottery. one-of-a-kind ceramics. endless. filmmakers. ‘creatives’ are a big force today, there’s no denying their role vis-a-vie – the digital world.
can we add (ttttrump) . . speech writers to the list ? & the growing respect for the laws/rights of intellectual property / & original thinking . . amidst all this freely accessed/published info (and photos) that surrounds us. thanks to our new century / human bio google robot component.
YES.
the human / computer .. the man bio / robot age is here, it’s just we’ve MERGED our brains first. augmented our brains – first.
we are wired into the web. we are . . HALF MAN / HALF MACHINE.
here’s my . . EAT THE LEAF pendant. it’s solid gold.
it says: ALREADY DEAD. think about it.
totally love the goth rose, and the bone-y skeleton hand. a hand holds a rose. nature. romance. aroma. even . . the thorn.
but the hand. the hand speaks to . . skills. hand skills, human skills, hands-on skills !!
sKILLs / kill. as in . . . ‘kill it’ – rule.
the power of the creative mind. the power of nature, the power of the leaf. growth & creativity.
hand sKills . . in my case: once also known as ‘fancy stitching’, embroidery / quilt repair / sewing, craft work, painting. writing. documenting, even photography is a form of handiwork. and so is archiving . .
and in Andrew’s case: jewelry making.
‘already dead’ is very different from . . the ‘walking dead’.
it’s not about being the ghost army, it’s about being – the army.
it’s about being ‘hard’, as in hard-nosed. persevering. focused.
present tense.
I s/wear it all the time – it’s my day-to-day motto.
I got it – the moment I saw it.
in all ways. but especially, quite literally. if you see me, you see it.
EAT THE LEAF !!!!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
see: EAT THE LEAF – HANDMADE JEWELRY BY ANDREW GUENTHER