Andy Tolley :: Artist and Illustrator

I have a background in Editorial Illustration but more recently I have diversified into the production of highly detailed but Impractical Machines including work in 3-D Digital Artwork.

Someone recently asked me about me and my Website,
WHO, WHY, WHAT, WHERE AND WHEN?

Who am I? An archive of stored memories and reactions that adds up to Andrew Tolley.
Why? Because my father must have been particularly persuasive that fateful night 43 years ago.
Why do I have a Website? Because I only feel vindicated when people can see my work, and decide for themselves if they understand what I am trying to articulate with my art.
What am I? A collection of cells that collectively forms a coherent organism.

"Part of the artists function is to alter the observers take on the world. To jolt or caress them out of the mundane rut of habitual thinking. And,just for a moment, have a sense of participation in a greater reality. Of it's very nature, what i'm trying to do belongs in the realm of images. Watercolour on paper, pigment, drawing implements, all the tools artists have used for thousands of years. If it was easier to say what i want to say with words, I'd be a writer. There is a large craft elelment in my work. I believe it is an insult to demand a viewers attention without offering something of value in return. "

"Humour is a key component in everyday life, why are artists who explore the absurd and whimsical dismissed as cartoonists?
Why are artists pigeon-holed as 'illustrators', or 'landscape painters, or 3-D graphics artists?
Why is so much so-called 'modern art' pompous and empty?"