My name is Andrea. I live in Salzburg, Austria, with my family. Many in my wider family are artists, sculptors, painters and gilders, but although I never stopped drawing and painting throughout my life I was not encouraged to think about becoming an artist myself. Instead I chose to study biology, a choice I never regretted. Until last year I worked in a challenging and versatile job as a scientist and exhibition planner at our local natural science museum, but I noticed that the time had come to decide whether I wanted to remain where and who I was:
Nearly eight years ago our younger son was born and a severe mistake made in the hospital shortly after his birth left him deaf for life. We lived through a criminal story of love, pain, betrayal and disillusionment about the people we had turned to with all our hope and trust. I realized that this experience was slowly acting to turn me into a very different person from who I had been, more courageous and outspoken, direct and political and the job at my museum did no longer provide me with the means and opportunity to utter my feelings and concerns. And as an autodidact painter I did not have access to the tools I required in order to catch all the emotion inside me and turn it into beautiful and powerful works of art to reach out and touch the world. So, in order to become what I need to be I have registered with the OCA to work towards an BA (Hons) in painting. This blog I want not just to be my learning log, but also a mirror of development, trust and hope.
Andrea's OCA study blog 