Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Digital artist and writer Andrew J. Fitt’s latest creations can be viewed as part of the art exhibition, Emergence Group Art Exhibition, currently taking place at NAPA, UTT. The exhibition continues until June 30.

Fitt’s pieces are mosaic-like, with rich deep colours and hidden depths which draw the viewer in. While he does not create around a specific theme, many of his pieces, like Echostick – a rendering of a microphone, Listen Up, Babe – a girl with headphones and F-Sharp – a man playing a saxophone, are all based on music, another interest of his. “When I create, I just get an idea of what I want to do, or whatever comes to me. It isn’t like there’s an underlying reason or motif, I just do what’s in my head at the time and I just go from there. I love music, if I wasn’t an artist, I would be a musician any day. Like right now if I could pick up a guitar, we wouldn’t be here. I am really active in the music scene, I know a lot of the musicians and I just listen to music and watch music videos, and that is me. If I do have a theme it would be music, I always have wanted to show something that has to do with music. Even the Pawn Bears a Grudge is again music, because it’s a line from a Bob Dylan song, and it’s one of my favourite songs ever.”

Another interesting piece is the Robber Queen, which shows a nude woman in a Robber hat lounging on a pedestal. Fitt said he wanted to do a Midnight Robber in a new way, “not the scary guy with the big hat and the beard, a new take on it, so I decided what if all the Robbers had a leader, a Queen, that was either their mother or their lover, and they all loved her, and she is like their leader, who they follow.”

The works being exhibited at Emergence are in digital format and are displayed on screens. Fitt said this is for two reasons. “The first is, I used to print my artwork but it can be expensive to do and if I don’t sell the work, I have work sitting down at home collecting dust and that’s not good, so with this I can put any amount of images I want on the screen, so I decided to do it this way. The second reason is that I’ve decided that I’m only making one print each of these images, in two sizes, so there will only be two of each image available for sale. Prices range from $2,760 to $5,160.”

Fitt, who was born with cerebral palsy, has exhibited his work at several art shows in T&T and abroad since 2000, with five one-man shows and a group exhibition. He exhibited ten pieces of work at the Art Fusion Gallery in Miami, which was part of Art Basel 2012. He has a degree in 3D Animation from the International Fine Arts College (IFAC) in Miami, but decided he had a stronger interest in graphic/visual art. He creates his art digitally using special programmes. “I discovered Corel Painter while at IFAC. It enabled me to create my artwork on my terms, and allowed me to work with a diverse array of traditional media through digital means. It is an application that has infinite possibilities that have let me grow as an artist, and given me the opportunity to develop my skill over the years.”

Fitt urged the public to take a look at the art on display in Emergence. “I think they should really come and see the work for themselves, there is some amazing stuff here in the show. Art in T&T really needs more support and this is a good show to get into art in general, if you’ve never been to an exhibition, because you’re into that scene or whatever. Art is for everybody, not just a certain class or type of people. People have art in their lives every day whether they realize it or not, whatever was designed by an artist is art. Art is everywhere and for everyone.”

For more information on Fitt and his art, go to https://andrewjfittart.com/.