Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Wright.
Andy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
First year of college, I was shot down hard by a girl that I thought was going to rescue me from all my problems, so I sort of went crazy and wrote three science fiction novels in nine months when I should have been doing my homework. They weren’t good, but they got the momentum started. Since then, I’ve been dropped from that first college, went to war in Iraq, got an English degree at another college, moved to San Diego to help a new church, watched the church fall apart, and moved to LA. Through it all, I’ve never stopped writing novels and doing artwork for them (covers, prop design, character design, etc.).
My time here in LA has been spent in trial and error, partnering with different people so that bigger projects can come into being. Most of these endeavors have been bitter-sweet (e.g., an attempted comic book, a half-finished web series), with projects being cut short by lack of money, difficult schedules, or other challenges. But all have been deeply rewarding learning experiences.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Originally, I just wrote novels and did artwork for them, but I’ve written scripts for TV, comic books, and features. Very few of those have seen any actual production, and then only via my own sweat and blood (a couple failed comic books, a parody short, and three episodes of a web series). In the last couple years, I tried to be more focused with the novel I wrote, from a production standpoint, and decided to turn it into an audiobook podcast, where every chapter posted would have an accompanying piece of artwork (I’m about 80% complete in producing/releasing this).
There are two main drivers for my writing. The first is that I can better process things I’ve gone through by tweaking them into a story. Making the metaphorical literal, as science fiction and fantasy can be very good at, for example. This bleeds over into the second drive, which is to normalize those struggles. People have told me my stories are impacting because they relate to the character’s frustrations and problems. I know now that, the more honest I am and the better I contextualize my own suffering into a story, the more powerful they are for people. My faith in God makes up a big part of this, especially the struggle to hold on to hope for a good future—in this life or the next—in the face of so many disappointments and failures.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
I think the biggest challenge is a problem that has been around for a long time: letting the lust for feeling legitimate get in the way of the love of making art. It’s very much a hamster wheel. The knee-jerk answer to this question is to say that trying to yell above the noise of everyone else in social media is the main challenge, but that’s just a symptom of this key problem. Too many people strain themselves trying to get noticed. Much worse, too many people murder themselves pursuing fame in a type of art they don’t even like doing.
There’s a lot of pressure out there to pursue a dream, and a lot of people with no dream and no desire to have a dream are out there chasing one. Dream or no dream, everyone can benefit from remembering the joy of being creative for the sake of being creative.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My online portfolio is at awilliamwright.com
My current big project, the audiobook podcast, is at worldsofmebar.com , but the best way to show support is to subscribe to it (just search for “worlds of Mebar”) and leave a review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes.
I’m planning on doing a kickstarter late summer/fall to produce the audiobook as a print version (so that the copies will be ready in time for December), so following me on Facebook and Instagram (well, and Kickstarter itself, obviously) is the best way to keep in the loop on that. I am at “awilliamwright” on all of those things, as well as most other things.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.awilliamwright.com/
- Email: wright.a.william@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awilliamwright/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/awilliamwright
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/awilliamwright
- Other: http://www.worldsofmebar.com/
Image Credit:
Photo of my poster for IMPERFECT by Diego Ojeda.
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