A Brief History of Peter Andrea

I was born in Burlington, Vermont in the summer of 1968 and grew up in the shadow of Mount Mansfield. Survival of high school years was due in great part to a devotion to "the arts"; primarily photography, which provided a safe haven from the mean streets of the halls and cafeteria.

I began studying sculpture and painting at the University of Vermont (UVM) in 1986. My work during this time frequently included found objects and wall-mounted reliefs. Late in 1988 I was introduced to the field of graphic design and became enamored by the profession. Two years later, having earned a BA in sculpture from UVM, I drove west to Oakland, California to begin studying design at California College of Arts and Crafts (then:CCAC, now CCA- god knows why) while at school, I continued my work with found objects and photography, often including sculptural pieces in my design projects, and creating works outside of school.

In 1992, I joined Cyclone, a San Francisco based collective of multi-disciplinary artists. My work during this period was primarily large scale and utilitarian, creating steel and wood furniture and even a small steel-framed resin and canvas boat. The smaller pieces I constructed, however, remained similar to the work done at UVM. They were mostly on wood panels and often juxtaposing words or fields of color against found objects, or sculptural elements. My first show of these pieces was at the UC Theater in Berkeley, California. Also in 1992, I joined the Rucker Design Group.

In 1993 I graduated from CCAC with a BFA in Graphic Design. I continued to work with Rucker Design Group (RDG) as a Senior Designer. In 1999, now as a part-owner, RDG was sold to Excite@Home, and I spent the next two years in that corporate environment as a quasi “Director of R&D” in Excite Studios. Throughout the twenty years spent working as a designer, I have continued with my fine art endeavors, founding Fuse Studios in 1993 and remaining passionate about my personal work.

In early 2002, with the bankruptcy of the company, I left Excite@Home and spent the following year devoting my time to interests in sculpture and working as a part-time design consultant for Laszlo Systems. I later joined Laszlo full-time as the Design Director of Product Development. After more than 6 years there, I quit on Halloween 2008 to pursue fine art. I am finally taking the time to do this fully and truly enjoying it. This is likely more than you really wanted to know. Also, the rag on this text block is attrocious... but I have a limited set of HTML skills- my apologies.