Andrea Martin
How I came about being incarcerated was that I was a great big sinner. I was living the lifestyle of living the street life…My mom got hit by a car and my daddy was killed in his truck driving down a mountain. It caused pain to come into my life as a child ... and I didn't know how to deal with pain at such a young age. I was looking for love in all the wrong places.
Artist Statement
Andrea Martin is a poet of her own struggle, and her words and images jolted my art into new ways. How to map out the harsh facts of her life to be seen and felt by strangers on the wall of a museum? The leftovers from our combined search are piles of scratch paper and canvas strips, scattered words and spattered paint, and scraps of crocodiles and snakes still lurking in my studio. But culled from talks on the phone and videos and photos, our experiences have combined to make us friends for life, and include Marilyn Wilson who has rescued Andrea more than once from the rainy street corners of New Orleans. Seth Ludman’s collaboration onsite made it possible for me to work on this piece from afar.
Andrea Martin, 2018