Interview with South Florida Artist Andrew (Ana'Alu) Hollimon

Andrew Hollimon, hereafter Ana’Alu, is a mixed media artist born in Detroit, Michigan, raised in deep southern Arkansas and St. Louis, Missouri. He currently resides in South Florida where he works in a shared studio space hosted by Zero Empty Spaces in Boynton Beach. You can find more original artwork and stay up to date on his latest exhibitions through his Instagram and website linked below.

I had the pleasure of speaking and meeting with artist Andrew Hollimon in his Boynton Beach studio and was immediately captivated by his work. The outward individual expression and presentation of brilliant colors, striking figures, and multitude of genres present throughout his artwork projects a positively inquisitive and unique outlook on the practice of artmaking and storytelling that invites the viewer to dive deeper into understanding the piece.

Ana’Alu works to meticulously demonstrate an extensive realm of artistic awareness. His work ranges from abstraction to formal figurative representation as he challenges preconceived beliefs of solidity within the artist’s portfolio. When first viewing his work, there is an immediate atmosphere of imaginary playfulness; and if you look closely, you can begin to find the camouflaged symbolism behind much of his subjects, text, and color palette. The stories and history uncovered in his paintings are outwardly authentic and derivative of past and present life experiences. Ana’Alu continues to push boundaries and experiment with the techniques of his craft, but he wasn’t always a painter. His interest in art began around the tender age of four or five years old with him scribbling on walls in the family room and using any scrap paper he found to draw on. He continued to draw and sketch profusely until his teenage years, with his late teens embarking on an enlistment in the US Air Force. It was through his time in the military that the core values of discipline and focus began to build a solid foundation for much of his life and passions moving forward. These traits led themselves to his long career as a Human Resources manager and his later decade long career in Business Administration academia. Ana’Alu’s life as a developing artist didn’t commence until many years after his military service, following attainment of a Bachelor of Science degree and Masters in Business Administration (MBA). It was then, he picked up a canvas and some oil paint to “play-around” with. Having no previous professional or academic education in the arts, he remains committed and enthusiastic to learn and share his love for painting with the world.

“I would advise my younger self to study the arts with caution against allowing the didactic experience to stifle creativity and exploration.

I offer those words to a younger Ana’Alu while fully appreciating the reality having come to art in mid-life, but I arrived with a solid foundation which now affords me the opportunity to focus on art when I wish vs needing art to live (a reality which also allows for the exploration of various 2D painting styles). For example, occasionally I receive remarks from non-qualified “art experts” to ‘stop creating in various styles while focusing in one style’. Intriguing advice if I didn’t have collectors of my wildlife works, collectors of my realism figurative works, collectors of my patterned abstracts, as well as art lovers who appreciate various styles of 2D art; many of the latter are international art lovers.”

Steering away from the more traditional and critical guidelines present in the art world today, Ana’Alu eagerly displays all genres of painting styles within his work. It is hard to view his diverse portfolio at large and not think that every piece was made by a different artist’s hand. His audience is regularly surprised by his determined experimental creative practice, gathering both criticism and compliments alike. In agreement with Ana’Alu, I find that the more conventional academic path of today’s artists can lead to a decline in creative freedom and investigation. Throughout an artist’s professional career, it can be easy to find a style that people like and get boxed in with a brand or title. I believe this lack of professional arts education has led Hollimon to carry the young explorative spirit throughout his life and into his painting today.

A consistent underlying theme I found in much of his paintings is the relationship between music, color, and the human experience. In painting “The Eternal Cabaret” (2020), created in quarantine when he contracted the COVID 19 virus, Ana’ Alu depicts a delightful night scene with multiple figures playing musical instruments; however, there is a somber narrative to be understood past the surface level imagery. Beneath the exquisite textures and saturated color palette within this painting, you can begin to analyze the scene playing out of a musician who has passed, yet his music lives on. Symbolism and performance of color can be seen in many of his other works such as “Distancing Duet” and “Moonlight Serenade”. The viewer is left to study the metaphorical anecdotes found in his paintings, as well as create their own interpretation of what is unfolding before them. In much of his abstract work, Hollimon utilizes an exuberant color palette with contrasting geometric and organic shapes that can be translated into a rhythmic balance through visual analysis.

He is currently experimenting within the genre of abstraction and testing how various tools can work in collaboration with the canvas to attain desirable effects. Presently, Ana’Alu has exhibited and sold artwork both in the states and internationally.

https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/andy-hollimon-9475?fbclid=IwAR38ru7oXx-jC6cjuJwCza2HcHhkMbqreAzGeFmAKhYRx_Azh_C0VIuRrpc

Andrew (Ana’ Alu) Hollimon on Instagram, @anaalu8.