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Andrew
Bracey's making a name for himself (sometimes literally, he's
created his signature in neon) through his prolific passion
for painting. Bracey takes everyday materials and turns them
into abstract paintings but according to Bracey he fails to
do this. "It isn't a problem to me as they become something
else, often more interesting." Bracey likes to tread a
fine line, his work lies somewhere between the real and the
abstract. Currently he is painting hundreds of nail heads with
different painting styles. "They can be viewed as a load
of nails, " he explains "individually as separate
paintings or on mass as a big dot painting."
Bracey
is keen that his work is seen in the context of painting in
order that it can be discussed in that language. "It's
similar to the way Stockholder (Jessica) says her work is painting
rather than sculpture." Whilst retrogressive, this is not
a problem for Bracey, and of course he absorbs many facets of
contemporary art. "This filters into my work in an organic
way." For Bracey the title of a piece is almost a necessary
evil, a means to an end, in guiding the viewer to his perspective.
"The important thing is the ideas and the way the work
is made, the title often comes at the end of the process, a
good piece of work should hopefully hold up above the title."
Bracey
like many artists before him has suffered for his art; he put
on weight (that he just cannot lose) after spending a year eating
a packet of pistachio nuts every day to paint on and he also
slipped a disc after bending over a painting all day. "I
couldn't move, I had to crawl around for about 3 weeks and mucked
up my back for life. Talk about suffering for your art!"
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