Stirring

While speaking with Andrea Pejack, a local artist of St. Petersburg, I was drawn in by her celebratory approach to life and the stories told by each of her pieces. With one glance at her paintings, filled with complimentary hues of orange and blue, or sculptures of wood and clay, I realized the limitless abundance of culture, talent, and beauty that surrounds the place I call home.

Andrea began her artistic journey as a small child and can't imagine a life without the ideas and unspoken words that can be expressed by her own two hands.

"How can you not have creativity in your life? I like to make pieces that will help people feel the same fulfillment from life that I do," Andrea says.

The comfort and solace she finds in nature is evident throughout a variety of her work. Hearing her describe her favorite moments allowed me to see the world as only an artist could.

"I like to take in the wind...when you realize the cold is on its way. Or look out the small window very early. To see how the sun touches on everything in the backyard."

It doesn't seem that her dynamic energy will be fading anytime soon. She finds ways to constantly reinvent herself and her art. "When I read books I underline words or phrases that give me inspiration. I write down the words, and rearrange them to make a title for a piece, before I make anything. It's as if I give myself an assignment."

Already a drawer, painter, and sculptor, Andrea is still expanding her portfolio with other visual mediums. Her work contains gorgeous compositions of organic materials such as clay on wood. Vibrant acrylics are a constant and comprise her favorite piece on Masonite, entitled "Spiritus". More recently she enjoys incorporating mixed media and graphic design. Collage techniques represent the layers of her life and the person she has become.

Andrea's passion for art was deeply influenced by the Salvador Dali Museum as well as the Mainsail Arts Festival in her youth. She is a graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts and currently has her sights set on graphic design at the University of South Florida. With displays and exhibitions at the University of South Florida's Oliver Gallery, Donna Gordan Gallery, Mainsail Art Festival, Studio@620 and numerous awards and scholarships, it's refreshing to find a humble, down-to earth woman at the root of it all.