Andie Dinkin Creates Dreamlike Worlds
Welcome back to Breaking Bread, Brightland's editorial series that fosters dialogues with creatives, makers and artists who inspire us. Our latest installment features Andie Dinkin, the New York-based artist behind Brightland's whimsical holiday card illustration. Andie's delightful artwork is featured at beloved spots across the country including Gigi's Hollywood and The Carlyle Hotel. We recently visited Andie at her sunny New York home and art studio—read on to learn about where she finds inspiration for her enchanting art. How do you describe what you do? What drew you to the art world? When did you make your first illustration? Where do you find inspiration for your art? What did your creative process look like when creating the Brightland holiday card? What are you looking forward to this holiday season? What dishes currently nourish you? Where do you get cooking inspiration? What does “living in a golden state” mean to you? Photography by Victoria Morris.Breaking Bread with Andie Dinkin, the New York-based artist behind Brightland's whimsical holiday card illustration.
I’ve always enjoyed creating secret worlds for myself and my viewers to enter into. Imagined and dreamlike worlds, a world where anything goes.
I have always been drawing, since I can remember. I guess instinctively I was drawn into the art world. My major was illustration at RISD, so I learned so much about illustration there.
Dreams, Greek Mythology, Midsummer Night’s Dream. I look a lot at old vintage photographs from LIFE magazine. Some books that I draw a lot of illustrations of are Dali’s Cookbooks and Les Diners de Gala. I love the playfulness and weirdness of those books. I draw a lot of inspiration from the artists Florine Stettheimer, Leonara Carrington, Remedios Varo, Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Delvaux, and Marcel Dzama. I’m inspired by mostly surrealist artists at the moment.
I loved working on the Brightland holiday card. I started with making an inspiration folder of images and made sketches from there. I imagined a big holiday dinner that I would like to attend and I tried to recreate that feeling.
I recently moved from LA to NYC last January and I have officially decided that Fall is my favorite season. I love walking around in the brisk weather and seeing the orange warm light with the brick apartments. I also love enjoying the holidays and having drunken and merry celebrations and meals with my family.
At the end of the summer, I had been making Greek inspired meals a lot. I’d make a whole fish in the oven with the Brightland chili olive oil, a salad with radishes, cucumbers, red onions, end of the season tomatoes, feta, and labneh, alongside hummus with the lemon Brightland olive oil.
I use some of the Ottolenghi cookbooks. I have trouble following recipes so in the end, I just end up winging it. I find if I try to use only whole ingredients ideally from the farmers market, and keep it simple, I make my best meals.
A golden state would be doing my art but also learning how to maintain a balance. I would love to learn how to have a natural balance of spending time with friends and family, working out (I run and do yoga, but rarely lately) and doing my artwork. I think since it is such a passion for me, I find that sometimes I let my artwork take over and run my life. A golden state would be finding that balance of work, which is also my passion, and life, and have it all be connected and cyclical.
