Andrew Hurst - Artist

Ever pondered how an artist translates the tranquility of nature onto a canvas, or the intricacies of entering the world of crypto art? Get ready to navigate these intriguing trails with our guest, Andrew Hurst, a versatile artist well-versed in landscape photography, painting, and digital media. Andrew's love for the outdoors forms the cornerstone of his creativity, and he generously shares his creative process, from drawing inspiration from nature's beauty to the final brushstroke. He takes us through his journey into crypto art, casting light on how the transparency of blockchain technology won him over. You'll also get a sneak peek into how Andrew's family ties into his artistic journey and adventures.

Spicing up this episode are fun segments on Andrew's favorite dishes—Neapolitan pizza and breakfast crepes, his mantras, dream living spaces, and his take on the eternal cats vs. dogs debate. Andrew's dream of living on a catamaran is sure to inspire wanderlust in you! We also dive into the growing demand for art with movement and interactivity, as Andrew shares more about his upcoming projects incorporating digital art, photography, and paintings. And yes, there is also a tantalizing mention of an upcoming trip to Miami and the anticipation of savoring some delicious French toast! This episode promises a heartwarming mix of laughter, insights, and shared love for art and nature. Don't miss out!

https://twitter.com/_awhurst_

Transcript

NorCal Guy: 0:32

Hey everyone, welcome to this next episode of Noor Cal and Shill. Today we have Andrew Hurst. Andrew is a multi-talented artist who specializes in landscape photography, painting and digital media. Andrew's passion for the outdoors inspires his creative process, as he finds inspiration in the natural beauty that surrounds him. Andrew has been photographing landscapes for many years, capturing the essence of the world around him through his lens. His photographs often feature expansive vistas, stunning sunsets and rugged mountains, all of which convey a sense of awe and wonder. Andrew's photos are not just images of nature, but they are also a reflection of his own personal connection with the world around him. In addition to photography, andrew is also an accomplished painter. He often takes his inspiration from the landscapes that he photographs and translates them into vibrant paintings filled with rich color and texture. Andrew's paintings are an expression of his emotions and deep appreciation for the beauty of nature. Andrew is also skilled in digital media, using his artistic talent to create stunning digital art that often incorporates his photography and painting. His digital pieces range from abstract to representational and demonstrate his versatility as an artist.

NorCal Guy: 2:04

Beyond his love of creating art, andrew cherishes spending time with his family. His wife and children often join him on his outdoor adventures, creating memories that inspire his work. Recently, andrew has been exploring the world of NFTs, creating digital artworks that showcase his talent and creativity. His NFTs are a unique way for him to share his artwork with the world and offer collectors a chance to own a piece of his work. Overall, andrew's passion for the outdoors, his love of family and his talent for art makes him a true Renaissance man. His dedication to his craft and his ability to capture the beauty of the natural world through various mediums make him a standout artist in the world of photography and digital media. Everybody, please welcome Andrew Hurst. Hey, andrew, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Andrew Hurst: 3:02

Oh man, no problem, it's a pleasure to be here. I am doing great. Thank you Doing really well Good man, you know I was.

NorCal Guy: 3:12

I don't even know what happened, but I was like, I guess, because the discord, I was just like you know what. It'd be fun to get some of these guys that we chat with in the discord on the pod, cause they're great people, they're great people in the community and it'd be great to put them on the spot and get their information out there. Well, you know what?

Andrew Hurst: 3:37

It's been a, it's been a hood on the discord. We, uh, we certainly have a great time there and yeah, I'd love to kind of even just chatting on there as well. So this is, this is cool man, Super stoked to be here.

NorCal Guy: 3:47

Yeah, well, thank you. Thank you very much for coming on, you betcha. We can start it off with the. The most important question is do you have a hardware wallet and do you use it?

Andrew Hurst: 4:00

I absolutely have a hardware wallet. Uh, yeah, I've got a ledger and I use it. Um, actually have two ledgers, but, yeah, yeah, use it. It's uh, it's a very integral part to my time in the space, true.

NorCal Guy: 4:15

True. So what were your first thoughts when you heard about this crypto art?

Andrew Hurst: 4:20

Crypto art yeah, that's a good question. So, honestly, when I first heard about it, I was like man, this is like the biggest scam in the world. Why would I, why would I pay for like a JPEG that I can just kind of like go and get for free? And I was like this is like totally bizarre and people are spending like hundreds of thousands of dollars on these things and and and like that's all. In all honesty, that was kind of my, my, my first kind of uh, you know, as we know, who's this, like people, guy, like what, what is all this stuff? And so I mean, it's interesting because I've been pretty involved in crypto and sort of the 2017, kind of early 2017 and and kind of in what's kind of the, the crypto thing, never, not so much kind of like the online.

Andrew Hurst: 5:03

I would just do kind of my own kind of research and like anyways, that kind of fell, fell didn't fall out, but kind of backed off a little bit for a while. And then, you know, for the longest time I was kind of like a crypto maxing, like all of these like NFTs is just kind of like weird stuff. And then then it sort of digging into a little bit more and I was like, oh, you know what, like this is actually like really cool stuff and you know, I'll probably talk about a little bit more. But um, um, the, the, the, the provenance side of things I thought was just so cool and like the ability to kind of like trace um provenance of these artworks and and to kind of have this um connection between um kind of the, the creator and and the piece that is inscribed and and for who knows, for, hopefully, for perpetuity, it could be kind of traced, traced back and um.

Andrew Hurst: 5:55

At the time I was watching some of these kind of like art shows where, like the whole idea is to kind of like trace the providence of these pieces. I was like man, this would be like so easy if this were a blockchain. I was like, oh wait, oh hey. So that that kind of um kind of won me over. But but but honestly, my, my first um, my initial kind of reaction was like quite skeptical, but yeah, so what brought you to our photography?

Andrew Hurst: 6:25

Yeah, that's a, that's an interesting, um, interesting, uh kind of pathway that I've had there and like um, I've always kind of like creating. I've been, you know, as a kid loved drawing, kind of liked. I did a little bit of kind of dabbling around this like some some painting in um, uh, in high school, but but then it was actually funny. It was when I was in a, when I was in med school, and finally I was kind of like finding myself in my own place and I'm like at all these walls and they were all bare and I'm like I really want to get some art to put up here, but it's like I can't. I can't afford the art that I want. So I'm like you know what? I'm just going to make it. So I just I, I like one day decided to um, go out, buy like a set of paints, um, and I just taught myself to paint and so I started doing. I started doing these like big oil on board paintings and um, just started kind of like filling up my little tiny studio apartment with them.

Andrew Hurst: 7:24

And then, and then it's funny because as I was painting, I was like, you know, I was looking back at kind of some pictures I'd taken Um and I was like you know what? I need more stuff to paint? Because, like, the painting for me was a real kind of like personal experience where I always wanted to paint something that I had experienced. I wanted to paint somewhere where I was. So that led to needing you know. I was like, well, you know, I probably need a better camera so I can go ahead and take pictures, so I can paint them. And so I kind of did the photography scene as a way of thinking about like you know, if I take these pictures, I can go back to the studio and then I can paint them. And then, you know, I noticed I'd have the camera with me all the time and I was just traveling, thinking more about, you know, like taking pictures and stuff and and so the photography was actually kind of born out of um actually trying to come up with material to paint Interesting.

NorCal Guy: 8:11

Yeah.

Andrew Hurst: 8:12

Yeah, and then, and then, um, and then, obviously, you know, the photography is kind of like morphed into its own thing now, or just being able to go out and capture just the beauties of this kind of world that we live on and instead of, uh, in the way that I try to, you know how, the way I see the world, you know, being able to sort of capture that through the lens and then share that with other people is kind of where I'm at now. And then, yeah, yeah, I love it.

NorCal Guy: 8:40

That's awesome. That's a. That's an interesting and a great way to come about it. It's roundabout man Totally roundabout.

Andrew Hurst: 8:49

It's like yeah, it's by no way a linear kind of path. Yeah, I don't know for a butter force. That's how it happened.

NorCal Guy: 9:00

So what jobs have you done away along the way? High school kind of gritty jobs, as you, or any of the jobs that you had?

Andrew Hurst: 9:11

Oh man, I have you know it's not my first trip around the block here. I've had a very kind of wild ride. So, man, I've done everything from like. I've worked as essentially like a I said I used to travel around Ontario setting a big event tent, setting up like the grandstands and stuff. So I traveled all through kind of southern Ontario doing that.

Andrew Hurst: 9:36

I've worked at like auto shops, done like car detailing. I've worked. I've worked as an entomologist. I've done like kind of field studies, kind of like cataloging certain insect species in certain areas. I've worked as a botanist, kind of working on like native flora restoration, so trying to kind of bring back local flora to kind of developed or kind of destroyed habitats. Oh, I've also worked as an invasive species eradicator, which is like a fancy way of. I worked for a while actually in like a bog, literally kind of going around and like cutting out invasive species and like trying to remove like buckthorn and like honeysuckle from this, like fan in Michigan. That was a, that was a wild job, yeah. And then I've also worked as I've worked as a, as a lab tech for Amway. I did that for a while too.

NorCal Guy: 10:41

So yeah, yeah.

Andrew Hurst: 10:43

Yeah, yeah, I did. I lived in Michigan for a while and I worked out of there like big campus in in just outside of Grand Rapids and spent a lot of time going through Altcore products and doing product testing. Nice, nice.

NorCal Guy: 11:01

Yeah.

Andrew Hurst: 11:02

And my. My most recent gig is now I work as an emergency physician. You know British Columbia, so that's between that and Web3, and the family that keeps me keeps me pretty busy.

NorCal Guy: 11:14

Right, right, for sure, for sure. So if you were an animal, what would you be and why?

Andrew Hurst: 11:23

Oh, that's like that's a super tricky question. I really like animals and I like a lot of animals. There's kind of I yeah, so I have kind of thought about this to exit and there's two animals that do kind of strike me. So I'm going to kind of cheat a little bit and I might, I might mention two, but I'll give my. So I think number one I'd love, I'd like, to be an albatross. I really like the idea of the albatross.

Andrew Hurst: 11:47

Yeah, you know, like nice big animal can soar for you know, like days to weeks on end, just kind of looking down, checking out the world, traveling all over. You know they've, yeah, they seem to have nice relationships. You know they they do well with their partners, which is always a bonus. I think that would be a pretty cool one. And then the other one it's a little further out there, but like, like a tardigrade, I think would be pretty cool. Okay, so, like you know, you know, and that is because space I mean they've tried tardigrades out in space and I think that is friggin nuts. So I'd love to go to space. I think probably not going to happen for me, but you know who knows, but my kids may go to space. But like I think a tardigrade, you know, would be pretty friggin awesome If I could have, you know, the ability to kind of compute the way I do right now and be a tardigrade like that would be sick man. You know the survivors floating around in space kind of everywhere, the ultimate survivalist Right.

NorCal Guy: 12:49

Right, there's a part of me that yeah, loves that.

Andrew Hurst: 12:51

So yeah, either like a tardigrade or a nalbatross, pretty, pretty similar.

NorCal Guy: 12:57

Fair, that's fair. Do you have a favorite food?

Andrew Hurst: 13:02

I love food, I gosh, I love, I love, probably like most food. Favorite favorite again, man, that's tricky. So favorite gosh, man, I get it too. All right, I like I'm a Neapolitan pizza, love, love Neyvaldi pizza, you know. I think even like a margaritas type file. Oh man, I just love it. Love that dough, love that fresh mozzarella, that's, that's pretty good. But then the other one, because I'm a big breakfast guy, love breakfast Crapes, would probably be the other one, which is which is I know it's a bit of a cheat, right, because you could do all kinds of crepes like you can do savory, you can do sweet, you can do you know whatever you want. But but, man, I love me a good crepe and if I had to choose between sweet and savory would be probably sweet. So like say, let's say we did like a nice kind of blueberry, like a nice blueberry with a whip bit of maple syrup, that would probably be where, where I'd be at Nice.

NorCal Guy: 14:08

So you do, you make your own crepes. Then, oh dude.

Andrew Hurst: 14:11

I make my own crepes. Absolutely, that's a that's I do crepes. Crepes is a bit of an undertaking, though, and just just because you know you're not just doing the crepe but you're doing all the stuff around it. So when we do crepes, we'll do like we'll do eggs, we'll do bacon, we'll do sausage, we'll have kind of ham there, we'll have kind of multiple cheeses to go with it. I might whip up a sauce for the savory one, but then you've also got your like whipping cream. You can have your fresh berries, you're gonna have some banana, some Nutella.

NorCal Guy: 14:41

Oh yeah, and we do crepes, right if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it right.

Andrew Hurst: 14:46

Man go big or go home, you bet.

NorCal Guy: 14:50

Yeah, man. So do you have a piece of advice or like a mantra that you kind of live by?

Andrew Hurst: 14:57

You know, I think throughout the years there's probably a lot of good advice that's been given to me. I don't know if it's all kind of stuck, but like when. When I think about good advice, I think I think one of the ones is be kind, kind of whenever possible. I think that's something that really I try to live out, something that I try to both incorporate into you know, work, play and, you know, family. Just just be be kind, I think, whenever possible. I think that's a pretty good thing to live by, just because so much will flow from that.

Andrew Hurst: 15:32

I think I think also, another really good piece of advice that I've been given is to be present, and admittedly this can be something that I do struggle with, but but it's something that I'm working on is is to be kind of present in the moment.

Andrew Hurst: 15:46

Where you are, you know, I'm sure you can relate, but like having, you know, a young family, you know, and having kind of work, web3, all the things kind of right going on, it is very easy to always be thinking about the next thing right, like think about that, that you know, that next shift or that next drop or that next piece of artwork or the next family vacation or something, and I think that just kind of convincing myself or not forcing, but, you know, acknowledging the moment that you're in and being present with wherever you are is super important and and yeah, and I think that in some ways makes brings more enjoyment and probably more meaning to kind of what you're doing at the time too. Yeah, I will point out that as I was saying that I looked up because a squirrel was running on the outside. So it's a work in progress here. You know, be present, man.

NorCal Guy: 16:54

So if you could live or move anywhere, where would you live and why?

Andrew Hurst: 17:01

Oh yeah, yeah, I probably gosh. This world is so frigging cool I think I would want to live on, and it's maybe a romanticized version of it. But I'd like to live on a catamaran. It's, you know, like a big one, so it's reasonable size for the fam gym. But, like you know, then then you have the option to kind of get in everywhere. Probably I'd spend most of the time somewhere nice and you know, tropical, like either South Pacific somewhere, but but I mean I think I think the the perfect place to live would be somewhere where you have access to mountains and the alpine and then also access to kind of like warm water. So I'm not I'm not sure my perfect place totally exists in the world anywhere, but catamaran would get me pretty close. You know, be it be a BC boy, I do like to kind of ski and spend time in the mountains. So it could be hard to kind of totally give up on kind of snow and alpinism and forfeit that for kind of the balmy South Pacific, but I could probably be convinced, right right.

NorCal Guy: 18:16

So do you have any questions for me? Oh?

Andrew Hurst: 18:20

man, yeah. So this is like super important Weighing into the great debate, are you? Are you cat or dog?

NorCal Guy: 18:32

Oh, I mean, I got both, though.

Andrew Hurst: 18:34

So if you had to choose that's a hard one.

NorCal Guy: 18:44

Hard one. You got both. I mean there's. There's pluses and minuses above. I'm my. If I had to choose one, I might go dog.

Andrew Hurst: 19:00

There you go. Sorry, sorry, sorry to push you in that spot. That's super, super. I'm a dog guy. I can't. I'm not gonna argue through there. We've got. I should say we're dog and lizard people is so yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, I got two. Two is the two is the best thing ever. So, anyways, okay. So that that was, that was one of the questions, and here's another one. So what about this? Is, I think, about this one? So if you could meet any any artists in all time and like, have I don't know, you can spend a day kind of just hanging out with them, because I mean, I know you're a big collector and you know in, kind of know, like in, yeah, in all time, who would you spend your time with? Artist wise Anybody.

NorCal Guy: 19:50

I mean, I feel like there's only like one answer you can go with on that one.

Andrew Hurst: 19:54

All right, what you got. Like yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.

NorCal Guy: 19:59

Why? Because he's more than just like an artist, you know he's. It seemed like he was like into like kind of like the engineering thing and like his mind was all over the place thinking about everything and it'd be interesting to like hang out, see his process or just talk with him.

Andrew Hurst: 20:21

Yeah, totally agree. I think that would be a fascinating person to kind of just sit down like the true Renaissance man and like somebody just says everything Right and we're still talking about, like hundreds and hundreds of years later. Right, that's nuts. Yeah, I know, I agree, davinci would be pretty freaking cool. Yeah, all right, good choice, I like it. Probably have some delicious food with them too, man.

Andrew Hurst: 20:45

Oh yeah, oh yeah. And one last thing here what, what, what got you in, what, what got you into? I know you talked about this before, but what got you into this space?

NorCal Guy: 21:00

Well into the art collecting space? Yeah, I will. Initially it was like to flip money, flip and make money. And also I was like I can finally do something with my Ethan's, not just sitting there.

Andrew Hurst: 21:21

Love it yeah that's awesome man. So good, so good, no, it's good, you know, and like gosh, you've done well flip, I mean that kind of failed. You're like the you know diamond heads now, oh I know, I know I did, I flipped initially.

NorCal Guy: 21:37

It was it was mostly like art block stuff initially. But you know, what got me transitioned was the being able to chat with the artists. Because, like what you can't really, I felt like with gender of art, you can't really chat with the artists. Yeah, if you're not like some big collector, you're not like chatting with these artists. They're like releasing 500 to 1000, you know, one of one of X, so that's, they can't. You can't have like a deep or meaningful conversation, I would say totally. Whereas if you have, like this, one of one artists, you know you can like chat with them and have a good time.

Andrew Hurst: 22:23

Totally, totally get that. Yeah, yeah, although you know, with like chat bots kind of getting better, you know sooner because you're like sit down, have a great combo with like chat GBT it's going to be, I don't know program a bottom yourself.

NorCal Guy: 22:38

Here's the whole list. For me, that's it.

Andrew Hurst: 22:41

Have you? Have you? I know I said one last question, but have you? Have you got enough wall space now to display all the physical art that's been sent to you?

NorCal Guy: 22:48

No, no, no, no, never will.

Andrew Hurst: 22:52

Gosh. So when, when, when do you start that? When do you start that, that gallery? When do you like put up that space Right?

NorCal Guy: 23:00

I know that's a it's a great question. I mean, we we definitely need a bigger house, since our family is growing, and but you know, unless we like build something where, in my thoughts like like some sort of like gallery area with like a big closet, a storage, so you can like swap things out easily and rotate stuff through. But man, that's a great question. I mean, it'd be fun to open a gallery somewhere.

Andrew Hurst: 23:32

But it'd be super cool, it'd be a great idea, I mean even even to display it right, like well you got right to display would be fun, it's.

NorCal Guy: 23:41

It's also like the flip side is like how do you make money on that when it's not just a money drink yeah?

Andrew Hurst: 23:48

Yeah, I have no idea.

NorCal Guy: 23:49

I mean, I know there's like this space at Sacramento airport. It's like called the SMF gallery. It's like the small little space and I thought it'd be cool to like try and do something there, because people are always walking by that area totally.

Andrew Hurst: 24:07

No, that'd be. It's a high, high visibility area. That would make a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go.

NorCal Guy: 24:12

You just even like rent out that space briefly right Like uh, I guess that's just temporary, yeah, you could do that, give it a try.

Andrew Hurst: 24:19

Yeah, that's a. That's a cool idea. We need more of that. We need this forward thinking, right it's?

NorCal Guy: 24:27

a visionary here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrew Hurst: 24:29

I love it.

Andrew Hurst: 24:31

I think, that, um, yeah, like it does, it's interesting.

Andrew Hurst: 24:36

Um, the display of NFTs, I think, is a pretty interesting idea, um, even, I mean, I know you've got all the physical stuff that's come with it, but, um, yeah, I, I love, I love the idea of being able to display physically a lot of this art and I think that, um, that's something that I've got to look into more and just even like ways to to, to, to, to, to to more, and just even like ways to kind of get the art kind of out there to see, cause, you know, it's one thing for me to, you know, be on my phone and like, oh yeah, look at this, look at this really cool piece of art that I picked up, right, but like to have it kind of displayed big and man, I just, I just so wish. Like you know, everybody's got these. I don't know it's digressing a bit, but you know the big TV that's sitting in the room and just why is it? Why can't I not just have a nice lab on my TV where I can throw all my digital art up there? You know?

NorCal Guy: 25:28

right, right, I know, and that's the like, I've debated that too. Like, cause I have a TV that we like hardly ever use and like wow, and I just throw it up there and I which is, yeah it, versus like just having a screen, which I guess, maybe when you buy a device like a screen like which there's, like you know, like a few like three major companies out there.

Andrew Hurst: 25:58

Yeah.

NorCal Guy: 25:59

And you buy a device specifically for that. Potentially you know you're going to use it more or enjoy it more versus the TV. If you're not, like putting your mind into like okay, when it's off I need to put art on it or something like that when I'm not watching TV, otherwise kind of turn into a black screen again.

Andrew Hurst: 26:24

Yeah, no, I think, no, no, you're right, and I think I think that's that's, that's it. Having that purpose built or that purpose driven thing does, does make a difference. So when you, when you get your space at the Sacramento airport, you're going to have to make sure to have some uh, some digital displays as well too.

NorCal Guy: 26:40

Right, for sure, for sure. So do you have any upcoming projects or anything you'd like to talk about?

Andrew Hurst: 26:49

Oh man Gosh, don't open that up. Things I want to talk about. No, I'm coming for cat worms. Um, I upcoming stuff.

Andrew Hurst: 26:57

You know, I don't know, I like I'm always kind of creating in one way shape or form. You know, it's like, um, and I, I always I have the problem that I'm just I'm terrible at secrets. Like I don't, I can't keep things like a raps, like it's like when I make something I'm like I just want to put this out there, right, like, oh, it's all my timeline, oh, it's all my feet. So I'm not like super good at kind of holding, holding things back and, um, kind of like tuck it away for kind of later. It's usually like I create, I'm like, oh man, I like this, I want to share it. So it kind of goes out.

Andrew Hurst: 27:29

But but of late I've been I've been playing around a little bit more, um, uh, with kind of like non-static images.

Andrew Hurst: 27:37

So, um, I really, um, you know, I really love the idea of kind of like moving pictures or or images that have kind of like subtle kind of movement within them.

Andrew Hurst: 27:50

Um, and that's, and it's probably kind of, you know, the tangent of thinking about kind of like screens and displaying art. Um, I think that kind of even going forward um with um kind of the artistic space and technology and everything that, that I think screens will probably become um more more commonplace, in larger format and kind of displays, even in like residences, versus kind of like as they have permeated into retail and then shops and like now. But uh, I think that, as that happens, there's going to be a really big uh demand for I think kind of, you know, art that's got some kind of, that's got movement, not, you know, I think, and as such I've been playing around a little bit with some of my pieces and and trying to kind of add movement to kind of like static images and you know, whether that's using AI to do it or even just, you know, like after effects or something, um, but that's that's kind of what I'm toying around with at the moment.

Andrew Hurst: 28:44

Um, I've got a couple of trips planned coming up, so I'll be doing shooting, some more photography. Um, the painting, cause I also like, so I physically I do physical paintings as well too, so I still do a bunch of oil, um, and and I've got some kind of big canvases like sitting around at a back room that I should probably try to get some paint on as well. But, but, like it's just like time, though, man, like it's like I just I don't have enough time, and you know, and then work and family, so, so, so, coming down the pipe, um, I'm, I'm playing around, certainly, with some more, uh, digital art. That's been pretty fun to create, um, doing a little more than a fun photography to you, and, and you know, I'm always out taking the dog for walks and I always have my camera with me, so sometimes you'll snap a little something special. And, um, hopefully, some Aurora is going to come down the pipe this next little bit too, so we'll get out, get out shooting, so, yeah, cool Well.

NorCal Guy: 29:41

Andrew, I just want to say thank you for coming on the pod and I really enjoyed it, and uh hope you have a great day.

Andrew Hurst: 29:50

Oh, it was my absolute pleasure, Thank you for taking the time to chat with me and dude I just it'll be super fun to hang out in Miami. I'm stoked. Me too. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be great, I'm looking forward to the French toast.

NorCal Guy: 30:01

Oh man, it's going to be, it's going to be lit.

Andrew Hurst: 30:24

Oh man, it's going to be, it's going to be lit the shoe. No, cow and shoe Pocket. So it's show time. No cow and shoe Pocket. What the shoo? Oh, pulling and removing minus 18.