How to Be an Artist with Gretchen Andrew
Artist Gretchen Andrew’s face with Facetune’s AI filter modifying features in thick white paint
“An artist is someone who is celebrated for being themselves. A professional artist is someone who is paid for being themselves.”
“It takes as much creativity to make it work as it does to make the work.”
—Gretchen Andrew
Gretchen Andrew is a viral painter, hacker, and creator of the award-winning FaceTune Portraits, a series of oil paintings that “reveal the hidden scars of social media filters.”
Two years after college, Gretchen quit her so-called “dream job” at Google and set out on a performative experiment to become an artist. It was a wild success!
Most recently, two paintings from Gretchen’s Facetune Portrait series have been put forth for permanent acquisition at the Whitney. These provocative portraits criticize how AI and plastic surgery are homogenizing and dictating our collective beauty standards. The world needs this series and it was a joy to talk to Gretchen about creativity, algorithms, morning routines, robots, Botox, and how to become an artist.
Follow Gretchen on Instagram @gretchenandrew
Gretchen Andrew’s website: gretchenandrew.com
Erica on Instagram: @erica.j.schmidt
Erica on Substack (new!): @ericajschmidt
Erica's website: ericajschmidt.com
Full shownotes: ericajschmidt.com/podcast/artist-gretchen-andrew
Gretchen Andrew on This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life
00:00:00 Intro: Gretchen on today’s unreasonable beauty standards
00:01:44 Theme song plus Gretchen’s bio and riveting banter on Botox
00:06:04 Gretchen gets a running scholarship at Boston College. Landed a job at Google, which she quit after two years to illegally move into her art studio. How did this happen and how did it go?
00:09:39 Using the Internet as a force for good. Trying to make it as an artist in San Francisco
00:16:30 Gretchen’s take on the term “self-taught.” How she acquired the technical skills she needed without getting an MFA. How she found mentors like Billy Childs
00:21:00 Gretchen’s artistic origins. Did she draw as a child? Why art now? Gretchen’s dream of becoming part of the art world. Making your life one beautiful piece of art.
00:23:57 Promoting yourself as an artist. “It takes as much creativity to make it work as it does to make the work.” Networking, snail-mail thank you cards. Making it fun.
00:29:52 Using SEO to hack the search term “Next American president” with her vision boards during the 2020 election. How to make the Internet “a global subconscious manifestation machine.”
00:36:23 Gretchen’s morning routine. It involves setting an intention in front of the mirror at 4:55 a.m. She records herself and listens to the recording throughout the day. Seems like it is working?
00:40:21 Robotics and Gretchen’s Facetune Portraits. More on our society’s impossible beauty standards, the effects of AI filters, the cost of Botox, fillers and other interventions.
00:40:34 Specifics about the mechanics of Gretchen’s robots. Check out Erica’ smash-hit YouTube channel for footage!
00:51:41 How the Facetune project has affected Gretchen personally in terms of how she processes appearance expectations for women. More on Botox, haha, and does EMDR therapy make you prettier?
01:04:42 Gretchen Andrew’s creative routine. It can vary by week, month, or even two-to-five year period. And she has stop watches to keep track of it all.
01:13:08 Gretchen Andrew’s cleaning routine. Her house is spotless! And she hits Inbox Zero every afternoon. What a surprise.
01:15:37 Gretchen Andrew’s spectacular TED talk. Listen to the end for the title and topic!
01:16:25 Wrap-up and closing theme song. Sing or dance along. Thank you so much, Gretchen. What a blast and an honour.
If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: How to Be a Writer with Kyle Stevenson, Making It Fun with Mary Owen, and Moments of Joy with Al Lafrance.
To support this independent podcast, please consider purchasing a Lil and Bud dog greeting card at ericajschmidt.com/merch. You can also make a one-time donation here at The Donate Button. Feel free to get in touch for other sponsorship possibilities. My infinite thanks for all of this.
More infinite thanks, as always, to Taes Leavitt (darling big sister, Big Heart Journey), Sherwin Tjia (technical and creative advisor, Sherwin’s Quirky Events, Episode 22) and my dearly departed aunt Eileen Gun, whose generous gift helped to fund my new podcast equipment.
Stay tuned for more episodes extra soon. Don’t forget to follow This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life on your favourite podcast platform. And if you enjoyed the episode, I would be immensely grateful if you could share it with a friend and/or leave a kind and enthusiastic rating and review.
