Andy D Willett

born in 1957 in Stoke on Trent, England; lives and works in Rugby, England

He worked as a self employed Sign maker and Designer for around 20 years before studying Fine Art as a mature student. He is interested using the devices, technology and information delivery systems of mass communication to hopefully initiate a re-examination of our acquired viewing responses.

As a society and as individuals we are taught to respond in certain ways to visual stimuli both in terms of content and materials, and in his work he’s asking the viewer to reassess the way they respond to the materials and the form as much as the message. By using the power of materials, familiarity and humour he’s attempting to lead the viewer into an elaborate series of associations, which at the heart look at fundamental human relations, desires and failings.

What do contemporary people need art for?
There are as many different views about Art today as there are Artists.

Why do you create art?
I’ve been making Art for so long I have forgotten why I started.
I am reminded of the quotation by Albert Camus: “The more I produce, the less I am certain. On the road along which the artist walks, night falls ever more densely. Finally, he dies blind”.