Meet RAD Artist: Gianna Andrews

A Blank(et) Canvas.

Our Rumpl Artist Division (R.A.D.) program has long been a platform for showcasing artists, photographers, and designers on our one-of-a-kind canvas.

These programs are limited in nature and celebrate creative expression in all its forms.

For our latest collaboration, we headed to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to spend some time with artist Gianna Andrews in her studio and the landscapes that surround her.

Gianna’s work combines recognizable elements of nature with color, pattern, and a more emotional interpretation of place. We talked with her about becoming an artist, finding inspiration between the mountains and the sea, and how her relationship with the outdoors has changed along the way.

Tell us a little about yourself.

• I’m Gianna Andrews, and I’m an artist based in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. I’ve been painting for over a decade, almost every day. But it really became my full-time job eight years ago.

How did you become an artist?

I grew up on an island in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by nature and in a very creative household. So there were always crafts and art going on. But I never saw myself as an artist. Growing up, I identified more with being an outdoor athlete and spending time outside.

When I went to college in Montana, I knew that I wanted to be near skiing. So I pursued that, pursued mountain sports, and that led me to mountain biking. One day, I went mountain biking and had a very bad accident. I flew over the handlebars, broke my back, and basically had to reckon with: Now what’s my identity, and what am I going to do?

I just knew in the hospital that art was what I needed to spend time on and what the next chapter of my life was going to be.

From there, I started painting in a clamshell back brace every day during my recovery and began sharing my art online. That was the foundation for my career as an artist.

• 
  What is it about living on the Olympic Peninsula that’s so important to you?

• 
  There’s something about living here between the mountains and the sea on the peninsula that just feels like home. It’s almost like a place of solace to create, and I feel most connected to this landscape and environment.
  
  I love to travel, but being by the water where there’s a horizon, having a forest to go tuck away in, and then being able to get up to 5,000 feet in the mountains—it’s just so diverse and inspiring. I love it.

• What do you hope people take away from your art?

•  

  I think my goal, since I started sharing my art, has always been this: By sharing my art and story with the world, I hope to inspire others to reach for their dreams.
  
  I think we can get stuck living in this bubble or this box of expectations for how we think we’re supposed to live.
  
  For me, the artistic process is about expressing myself. And that’s what I want to inspire other people to do: be able to express themselves in whatever way feels most authentic.
  
  That’s what’s at the core of creativity: self-expression.

• What colors are you drawn to in your work?

•  
• The colors I like to work with in my art are seasonally inspired by nature and the time of day, and I spend a lot of time outside.
  
  So the mood of my art is definitely affected by the mood of the environment around me. If it’s a cloudy vibe, it’s easier to tap into those monochrome grays and blues. This time of year, it’s the brighter colors—more oranges and reds.
  
  I’m not always the happiest person, but art is my happy place, so that’s why it comes across as generally joyous.
  
  

What does nature mean to you?

Nature has always been a really big part of who I am. Growing up on an island surrounded by Puget Sound, I spent a lot of time outside. I think it’s where I feel most at peace, present, and calm.

I’ve also always had a big concern for the environment, which is why I pursued an environmental science degree. There’s a big disconnect between humans and nature, and I think we can feel it. It seems like we forget where we came from, which I think is nature.

One of my intentions with my art is to help people feel that connection—that emotional connection with nature.

How does that connection show up in your paintings?

When you see my art, it’s reality-based. There’s subject matter where you can say, “Oh, that’s a wave, that’s a tree, that’s a mountain that I recognize.”

But there’s an emotion in the sky or in the water, based on color choices and patterns that I’ll use, that isn’t reality. I think that comes from the emotional side of my connection with nature.

So it’s combining the reality of nature with the human experience of feeling connected.

• Has the way you relate to the outdoors changed over time?

•  

  What I’ve observed from being around the outdoor industry and outdoor athletes is that we can tend to view nature as something to conquer, like a summit to get to the top of. Even in that way of viewing it, there’s this separation that can happen.
  
  I’m not saying that I’m above that. Before I got hurt, I really used to view it as kind of like, you just want to tell everybody what you did that day that was so sick or whatever—which is great, and I love that people get out.
  
  But how are we forgetting that this mountain has been here for tens of thousands, if not millions, of years before us and will be here after us, and we’re so insignificant as human beings? I think that comes down to respect for the planet and for nature.
  
  Not using it for ego—using it to reconnect.
  
  

• When did you first think about working with Rumpl?

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• I think I knew about Rumpl before, but I really saw Rumpl in 2018, and I was like, “I want to work with them.”
  
  My dad is in the industry, so I would go to these trade shows. That was kind of my first taste of the outdoor industry, seeing how it all worked before I even had a brand to sell, basically.
  
  

• Tell us about the artwork that became the Rumpl blanket.

• 
  This is one of the bigger pieces that I’ve done in the last year. When we started to talk about what we could bring to life on the blanket, this one just made so much sense. I’m really stoked on how it turned out!

See more of Giann Andrews' work here >

Follow Gianna Andrews at @giannaandrews >

SHOP THE

RUMPL x GIANNA ANDREWS

LIMITED EDITION BLANKET

SHOP THE RUMPL x GIANNA ANDREWS

LIMITED EDITION BLANKET