|
|
Andy Volpe : Art & History |
| Hello! Welcome to my Webpage. My name is Andy Volpe (Andrew P. Volpe). I am an Artist, Printmaker, and Living History Presenter. Please check out the various sections to see what I do. I was born in Plymouth, MA, and had grown up / lived in Lakeville and Georgetown, although I consider Sturbridge my 'hometown'. I also lived in Westfield when at College. Currently I reside in Worcester. (pronounced "Woostuh" or "Wisstah" for those keeping track)
Having grown up visiting both Plimoth Patuxet (Plimoth
Plantation) and Old Sturbridge Village, I guess it was
inevitable that I would find myself getting into History and
Living History as a thing. Oddly enough, you couldn't
pay me to stand in front of my class in school, let alone
doing it wearing historical clothing. Well, since 2001
I've been doing just that and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I started giving history presentations while working at Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA (see my Living History page for more info), which closed in 2014 and moved to Worcester Art Museum (which continues the various Arms & Armor programs and presentations) As of 2011, I have been doing these programs and working as an Artist 'full time'. I like to joke I started drawing when I could first pick up a crayon and eat it. I took private lessons with the late Christine O'Brien in Southbridge MA for many years, as well as classes in High School, and earning a Bachelor's of Art in Fine Arts from Westfield State College (Now Westfield State University), where my focus was on Drawing, Printmaking and Art History.
Oddly enough, my first true art/drawing experience in school
was in Mechanical and Architectural Drafting. I was
always fascinated with the traditional tools (T-Square and
compasses and the like) but those were being phased out and
CAD programs were the new thing. Never really stayed
with it, but the "technical drawing" aspect found its way into
my artwork later in College and today. Somewhere around 2004 I had remembered some of the interesting historical / "Old Masters" printing and art-making techniques I had learned and done while at Westfield, and had started to develop a school living history presentation / workshop where I'd present younger students a college-level art history course looking at the Old Masters and their work, discuss excerpts of their writings about the art industry from their own words, and then demonstrate some of the techniques live.
Around 2009 I got involved with the Museum of Printing when it
was in North Andover (moved to Haverhill in 2015...Pronounced
"Hayvrill"...), where I've presented on both Old Master
Intaglio and 19th-20th century Printing and Letterpress,
affectionately called "The Black Arts". This was also
around the time I met Gary Gregory who founded the Printing
Office of Edes & Gill, where he was giving a Paul Revere
copperplate printing demonstration. So seeing he was a
living historian and a printer, I felt it was someone I Had To
talk to. I started working for the Printing Office
around 2012 and have been at it since. Edes & Gill
is where (we) replicate and print the documents and engravings
in 1770s Boston and relating to the American Revolution, using
the same (replicas) methods and materials of the period.
Other (historical) interests are in (military) Aviation, collecting squadron patches and logos, and Flight Sims; Hockey (played goalie for a few years and a major Boston Bruins fan); fan of old newspapers and magazines (17th and 18th centuries) and no surprise, a big Bookworm. If you have a need to know more of my interests, feel free to email me.
|
|
|
|
C:
2008 - 2023 A. Volpe |