Andreas Goff

Born in New England, Andreas Goff knew he wanted to be an artist at age 4 when he asked Santa for an easel. A graduate of American University with a BA in Political Science during the turbulent 60's, the artists social conscience was awakened and nurtured by the civil rights and anti-war movements. He later taught Head Start in St. Petersburg and was regional coordinator for several migrant day care centers in agricultural southern Florida. He taught bilingual education at Ft. Myers Middle School, and social studies and humanities at St. Catherine's Indian School in Santa Fe.

While in New Mexico, Andreas taught pottery and sculpture at St. John's College, and volunteered at the Mescalero Apache Drug and Rehabilitation Center doing art therapy. "My experience at the Indian school proved to be most rewarding. I began to do sculptures and began to understand Native American facial features. After ten years of perfecting his pottery, the artist created his first sculpture, a realistic Native American face with a whimsical wrap-around body form. He found a ready market for his unique style and innovative approach to clay.

As an artist-in-residence for the state of New Mexico for four years, his residencies have taken him from the Visually Impaired School in Alamogordo to San Juan Community College, and quaint Spanish villages like Questa and Mora, as well as residencies at Navajo public and boarding schools.

"In my soul there is a deep respect and admiration for native peoples and their approach to art and life, so I strive to capture a sense of beauty and pride in my sculptures." Andreas is an avid petroglyph hunter. These ancient designs frequently find their way onto his pottery and sculpture. He has sketched and photographed rock art on the big island of Hawaii, Vancouver Island, the Olympic Peninsula, throughout tile southwest, Missouri, Lake Erie, and throughout Venezuela, Peru and The Sahara.

"I first began to do African-inspired sculptures while being featured at the Lawrence Gallery in conjunction with the 1990 Winter Park, Fl Arts Festival. The gallery owner requested that I sculpt one of the students who were watching me doing a Native American sculpture. I wasn't really sure of myself, but after I finished I knew I was on the right track when his buddy said, That's bad, now do a sculpture of me."

His 9-inch raku sculpture of an African princess won first place at the 1994 National Miniature Show. Andreas has had a one man show at St. John's College of Santa Fe, San Juan Community College, Orlando Museum of Art artist of the month for Black History Month in 1998, and at Sibanye Gallery of Baltimore in 2000. He has been in several group shows including the Carol Thornton Gallery of Santa Fe, the Sanibel Ms Center, Gallery A of Taos, Penni Anne Cross Gallery of Jackson Hole, WY, the Gold Dragon Gallery of Tampa, and Just Lookin' Gallery in Hagerstown, MD.

The artist has done 7 of the 12 annual Zora Neale Hurston Festivals. Zora was part of the Harlem Renaissance and had lived in Eatonville, Fl., and in 2001 Andreas received his most cherished honor.. an award of merit at the Festival.