Texas Tech University

Vermont is an amazing place to visit in the fall. It’s even cooler when you live here. If you’ve never experienced autumn in New England, just imagine God dumping Fruity Pebbles on New Mexico… and that’s about as close an approximation as I can give you. The landscape is Martian, and inhibits obsessive compulsive artist’s behavior. It’s really mind blowing, and I’m fortunate enough to be experiencing it for my third year in a row.

I moved up here in 2006, about a year after graduating from Tech. I am a product designer and illustrator for Questech, a decorative home tile manufacturer in Rutland, VT. My company produces high end products for  people’s kitchens and bathrooms, which are sold at in Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

I married my college girlfriend, Kelly, a TTU alumna, and San Antonio city girl, who just loves -30 degree winters, torrential snowstorms, and driving on ice……. hahahahaha. I wasn’t too popular when I told her I landed the job up here. She is adapting, and I am proud. We live in a restored 1798 farmhouse in the Green Mountains, in a tiny mountain township called Shrewsbury. If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Funny Farm,’ I will vouch for its accuracy.

New Englanders are an odd sort. They don’t think too much of Texans. For some reason, I’m responsible for George Bush’s existence because I’m from Texas. Never mind that he was born and raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Ironically, Lubbock prepared me for life in Vermont, although Vermont wins the Darwinian award for most exotic white trash selection. Some of the locals here have their teeth removed in their late teens, to avoid ever having to pay for a dentist. How bout’ them apples?

Anyways, I want to say hello and thank you to all of the faculty and staff at TTU School of Art for making this possible.

Andrew (2004 BFA Studio Art – Drawing) can be contacted at horatiouaus@aol.com.