Hi Andy, why did you pursue a creative career?
It was a little bit of a journey getting there. I think I have always been on some kind of search or quest. Growing up my Father Ed Moses was a well know abstract painter but discouraged me and my Brother from doing the same. Like most parents he wanted us to be a Doctor, Lawyer, or go into business. I surfed a lot as a teenager and it had a huge influence on my psyche. I figured I would move to Hawaii and be a board shaper. After that maybe write novels. I always read a lot as a teenager. I wanted to really live first though. My last year in high school I had a severe ear and sinus infection and the doctor said I couldn't go in the water for a year so I decided to apply for film School. I ended up being accepted into the art department at Cal Arts but they told me I could study film as well. Within just a few months of being there I found the art department more interesting. The teachers and other students got me thinking in new and innovative ways. In my second year I started working with a lot of experimental painting techniques that I mostly invented myself. I wanted to make something that I had never seen before. I had always been influenced by the ocean as well as astronomical and geological events. I knew I wanted to represent the natural world, but in a way that captured it in motion and changing and shifting rather than something static. I wanted to capture aspects of nature across different scales as well. After just two years I moved to New York and was making paintings between working different jobs. My first job was working as an assistant for artist Pat Steir. I loved working for Pat and she was an amazing painter. Later I had my first solo exhibition in 1987 at Annina Nosei gallery and I have been painting and exhibiting my work ever since.
