Most people know me as the writer and artist behind StoryPeople. Brian Andreas Studio is my wild space where you'll find my most recent stories and all the other things I'm up to...
Born in Iowa, raised in Chicago, I went to Luther College for my BA in Theater and English. Later on, after I figured out what I really wanted to do (HA!) I got my MFA in Fiber and Mixed Media from John F. Kennedy University in the Bay Area of California. Fibre? you say. I thought you told stories. Well, if you must know, I’d answer, my degree is in Stories As The Fibre of Human Community.
That said, my real education came from being in the world: short order cooking at Denny’s, apprenticing with a French chef in Chicago, running operations at a high-fashion mannequin factory in L.A., doing contract archaeology in the summer heat, dabbling as a tennis pro after college, writing plays for a small theatre company in Minnesota. I speak six languages, with my favorites being the Romance languages (not surprisingly).
For me, the thousands of stories I've written are a lot like going through photo albums. They mark specific moments & ways of being in my life. Taken on their own, they are reminders of those times. When I read a group of my stories, I get a sense of where they’ve been leading me, what they’ve been wanting me to understand the whole time. That changes through time & through the addition of further stories along the way.
I paint canvases. I sculpt wood. I write stories. I cook. I have long conversations with the people I love & much shorter conversations with people I don't. I make books - 15 so far. I devour urban fantasy on my ipad (at least, lately. I have a few non-fiction thingies I'm reading, too, but those are mainly to prove I have a broad set of interests when someone asks...)