Andre has had encouragement from a very young age; his parents always accepted his need for artistic expression. Andre’s developing mind gravitated toward various art forms on its way to his eventual career as landscape painter. He toyed with the idea of becoming a musician, but admits that he is “too lazy; you have to pick something. I didn’t want to choose.”

Andre is also awed by photography, as is clear when you look at his office, which is filled with rows of black and white photos of landscapes and people. He has toyed with the idea of becoming a photographer, but a huge dissuasion was that he hated going up to strangers and taking their photos. “I could not walk up to people I didn’t know and invade their space. I didn’t like invading their space because I don’t like my space to be invaded. I also like to work alone.” He also mentions that photographers are unable to alter or change the scenes they capture: “When you are painting, you can move things around. I can change the light, add clouds, or move vegetation. That picture behind you? The actual scene had a huge cactus that I took out, and it was taken on a sunny day, not a cloudy day.” “Tweaking” his paintings is evidence of the amount of creative control that painters have and photographers do not.

Andre’s choice of black and white photography points to a general preference for that part of artwork that is a little deeper and more melancholy: “It’s more contemplative, takes you in more.”