Conversations with Andrea Monroe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Monroe.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was a skinny insecure child who escaped into the wiles of all nature that surrounded me in my small suburban world of Berwyn, IL. I collected insects, rocks, leaves, and had a menagerie of newts, frogs, snails, and turtles. Drawing and writing came effortless to me at a very young age when I had a poem published in the local newspaper and won an honorable mention for a pastel polka-dotted bee I drew in a youth class at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Being right and left brained, I first chose work in the financial district of Chicago. Although I excelled as a great employee and fast learner, I became titillated by the flip side of life; that of a creative field. So, I quit my job and applied to listing for a studio manager at a fashion photographer’s business. Fast forward; I then became a model while freelance bookkeeping and waitressing to pay the bills, after which I ended up in retail fashion as an assistant buyer which offered a more steady income.

Then I met my soon-to-be husband while at a wedding in Los Angeles. After a super sonic courting experience, I packed myself up and moved across country to live with him. Here, in LA, I began work again in retail fashion until I was offered a position on a movie as an intern to film costuming. In the span of time between 1987 to 1998, I began an exciting film career, married that man and had a son.

My marriage proved to be trying, especially after I gave birth. My husband and I were careening toward divorce and I was terribly unhappy. A friend of mine invited me to a service at a church of Religious Science (founded by Ernest Holmes). I quickly became a student of the spiritual philosophy and enrolled into a foundation class where I would become a member of the church. The final project was to create something to show the classmates. I chose to paint a Baby Jesus with the words “I AM” encircling his head with a background of bright colors. The inspiration came from my Catholic upbringing and small collection of religious cards I had.

Following the Baby Jesus, I began to paint an older Jesus, a Mary, a Buddha, Elvis and various angels, each with halos full of symbols encircling their heads. I did a huge painting of my rendition of The Last Supper where Jesus is accompanied by various spiritual icons (including Elvis) instead of the old boring disciples. I guess you can say those paintings created my first artistic series. Well, in any case, I felt I had enough of a collection to start showing around. (BTW, I sold two full scale giclees of The Last Supper while I retained the original)

Luckily, a small gallery in Eagle Rock named Cactus took in some of my work. By then I was also experimenting with 3-D pieces and mobiles with great success. And then my Baby Jesus sold! But time changed and so did the gallery. It closed its location and reopened in Frog Town, an area that had not become gentrified just yet. The Cactus owner still welcomed my art into the new space, but film life had gotten busier for me. I could only paint in my down time until soon enough I was off to another project.

In between film gigs, I began to paint another group I called The LA Series. I had become affliated with a couple of art groups in the Valley where I lived. At one point, one of the groups would celebrate the history of Northridge and asked for submissions. The theme I chose for my painting began with researching who the settlers were in the that region. I came across the Halverson family and decided to render the mother and her child in black and white against a colorful narrative background of geography that encompassed that time. I so loved this process that I decided to paint more like it. The next paintings spiraled off of Los Angeles street names as I became curious about the history of the people they were named after. So again, I painted black and white figures with modernistic background of color; Mulholland, Doheny, Pico, and Will Rodgers. As a result of those paintings, I was accepted by the LA County to render a similar style for the 100th Anniversary of 19th Amendment (Women’s Right to Vote).

In the meantime, the divorce I should’ve had years before became a reality. As the anguish and confusion of ending my thirty year relationship became real, I painted my way through it, nine in all, depicting beginning to end transformation I experienced. I never thought my series, The Story of Divorce, would ever sell, but It opened more windows for me after I wrote poems for each of those paintings. It was back to Cactus I went and had a solo show of all my painted pain on display and read each poem in front of them.

Then, as luck would have it, I broke my leg on a film set. Being physically uncomfortable, I couldn’t really paint because of getting up and down to change my brush water, etc. That’s when I wrote a book based on my young sexual experiences in the late 70s to early 80s. Each personal encounter I’d had became a character in what turned out to be strangely funny story about a young girl, her precocious imaginary friend (a devil named Red), and their adventures that curiously started to cross paths. I highly recommend The Devil and Me.

Now we are here in present time. I decided to become involved in an art organization and settled on a juried-in membership to Women Painters West. Because of them I’ve had the opportunity to be juried into several shows and use my left brain as their Secretary at board meeting and be Event Chair. I retired recently and find more time to paint commissions, gifts, and entries for other shows. It’s been a journey that keeps on keeping on.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Creativity can be ever-flowing. It’s like a stream that snags onto rocks called “self-doubt” and “lack of self-promotion”, or so has been my case. I feel I have a unique style that isn’t easily understood. Mind you, it’s not off-the-wall, but neither is it classic.

My biggest obstacle has been self-promotion, though. I’m fairly introverted., I’m a good listener, but a quiet speaker. Socializing becomes difficult for me because I live a quiet life. It’s quite terrible when my brain brandishes me for not taking more steps for me or my work to be better seen.

Another conundrum, as is for many artists, is pricing my work. Do I sell it for less to simply move it or do I hold onto a reasonable rate that quantifies the energy and time I put into it? And because I lack the ability to promote myself well, I have an inventory of unsold work. Mind you, I have sold and have done quite a few commissions over the years.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My paintings create layered visual narratives that examine love, protection, and human connection through a lens of humor and history. Working in hand-mixed acrylics, I build complex compositions that break down large shapes into intricate individual forms—a technique that invites extended viewing and discovery of hidden details.

​I place contemporary and historical figures into unexpected scenarios. My paintings operate as visual stories where symbolism and tongue-in-cheek humor create multiple layers of meaning.

​My process involves painting flat on a table with controlled brushwork, mixing all colors by hand to achieve the specific vibrancy. This approach allows me to focus on crisp lines and bold illustration while maintaining the spontaneous energy that drives the narrative content. The patterns and designs of Mexico, South America, Africa, and Japan influence my visual vocabulary, combining with the color traditions of Fauvism and the surreal sensibilities of artists like Frida Kahlo.

​Each painting emerges from personal experiences—spiritual breakthroughs, relationship dynamics, and life transitions—transformed through research and imagination into universal stories. The work connects past and present, celebrity and everyman, creating a visual language that speaks to viewers across generations about the complexities of being human.

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What’s next?
My website is my portfolio, but not a marketplace. So, I need more than one avenue to sell my work. Ultimately, my goal is to work harder on getting my paintings seen and hopefully get gallery representation.

As for my painting in general, I’m not the greatest at doing a series of more than nine paintings. In my head, my style is the complete series because it carries forth in all of them. So, I’ve been thinking about other ideas and perhaps introducing some abstract into my narrative thinking. Technique probably won’t change much because what I do is already my signature.

Pricing:

• *Contact artist for pricing details
• *Willing to take payment plan with delivery of painting on final payment
• *Willing to ship. Costs are packaging and shipping added on to price of artwork

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andreamonroeart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreamonroeart/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.strazis.monroe or http://www.facebook.com/andrea.monroe.art