Andrea Mckenzie – Courtesy of the Andrea Mckenzie website
Not too often do you get attracted to the art and the artist at the same time. It’s difficult to see art in its full artistic flavor when the artist is a beautiful woman who carries herself with grace and dignity! Andrea Mckenzie is art herself as she is of Caribbean flavor (magnificent landscape, warmth, beauty, heritage), whose amazing beauty is a blend of physical and natural elements that can only be God-given. As difficult as it is to separate her art from the artist, it becomes inevitable to notice the elegance and the beauty of this Caribbean queen when she showcases her amazing talent for the world to see – art at its best that combines the values of tradition, simplicity, and talent in a very superior form that the eyes can only translate to be uniquely different from anything it may have ever seen. Most times people expect art to be a painting or drawing. Andrea takes all that to a completely different level that captures the imagination and provokes a new appreciation of the beauty of imaginative inventiveness. Using natural materials and creativity, Andrea brings art to life by constructing what the human mind invents, putting together bits of nature’s gift to produce an exhilarating experience of wonder that leaves you in awe of how natural elements can be constructed to become an expression of how the mind sees nature and humanity.
I am not an artist myself to use the right jargon that may be necessary to justify the amazing work this Caribbean queen produces and words are not enough to describe the outstanding talent I am writing about. And neither have I ever been seen writing about art in my entire media career, but I have been captivated by unrivaled talent here, difficult to explain, as it will take only the natural eye to appreciate what the black woman equivalent of Picasso can do. I can safely predict that in a few years from now, the artistic work of Andrea Mckenzie will fetch millions of dollars and the art at heart will soon be queuing for a taste of this Caribbean flavor to adorn their living rooms and hallways, bringing tasteful life to their homes. The uncommon talent has been a focal point on social media, especially on Linkedin where I have been fortunate to see her talent on show.
Below is an extract from her website about this amazing and talented artist:
“Dipped in diversity, strokes of splendor with all the colors of the Caribbean” a true island girl Andrea Mckenzie, on one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world Trinidad and Tobago.
Andrea’s natural touch for creativity was discovered and developed at an early age because of her family’s active involvement in the world famous Carnival.
Mckenzie attributes her extraordinary creative ability to her family’s respected creative legacy. The art of painting quickly stroked its way into her identity making her a household name on the island by her mid-twenties.
Andrea’s fascination for contrast, textures, fabrics and materials made it’s way into her jaw dropping kaleidoscopic pieces. Mckenzie uniquely infused glass, feathers, acrylic and other materials on canvas which propelled her into achieving a viable international clientele.
Throughout her young career she has already exhibited works in multiple nations including Trinidad and Tobago, and neighboring Caribbean islands, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia , Australia.
She has collaborated with various celebrities including Akon & actress Sydney Sweeney from the award winning HBO series Euphoria.
Her work has also been featured at celebrity auctions such as (DICK GREGORY FOUNDATION) and The Mayors Foyer City Hall, Atlanta.
She is also the winner of the “Black I AM Power, Art and creativity Award” 2019 in Atlanta
Also being honored by the Caribbean American Heritage Awards DC with the Vanguard Award 2020 for excellence in Art.
Andrea’s story now inspires young women to take ownership of their own creativity.
