Andaluz The Artist hit it big in 2016 when his Pokemon mural on the side of a Huntington building went viral. Since then, he’s been pretty busy making large murals and art for walls and galleries coast to coast. He spent time in California and Atlanta recently producing artwork and is planning to travel to Chicago soon for a new project.
But the Queens-born artist who works out of a Long Island studio says his heart is still right here at home.
Recently, Andaluz - who says he was heavily influenced by hip-hop, graffiti, Saturday morning cartoons and superheroes growing up - finished a technically challenging work for Lindenhurst Library’s new courtyard.
“It took a month,” Andaluz said in a recent phone interview with LongIsland.com. “It was one of my more time consuming jobs.”
The challenge, according to Andaluz, was getting access to the wall behind the stairwell in the courtyard, which forced him and his team to get creative. The usual process just wouldn’t work for the layout.
“We had to build a crazy scaffold,” he said.
The juice was worth the squeeze in this case and Andaluz was happy with the outcome. The concept went through some design changes as it came to fruition. At first, the artist says they considered a more realistic approach but then he had an epiphany.
“I started thinking about it like it was a big shelf,” he said.
The result is a bookshelf with a mix of real and made up titles interspersed with Nintendo characters. The librarians gave him a list of book titles to use.
“I picked about 15 of them,” he said. “Some of the book titles I made up on the spot.”
As for the characters, Andaluz seems to have an affinity for Pokemon since that’s what he’s best known for around the area. Initially, the library thought that if they stuck with a Nintendo theme it would eventually become outdated but Andaluz made his case.
“Everyone knows Super Mario from the kids to their parents,” he said.
The Lindenhurst lettering was inspired by postcard designs.
Andaluz doesn’t do many libraries but he expects he will be getting more calls to paint them after this.
“I have a feeling I’ll have a lot more schools and libraries contacting me,” he said.”
This job for the Lindenhurst Library came through word of mouth. One of the library workers knew of his work in Huntington and asked if he’d submit a bid. It took over a year, but eventually Andaluz won the job.
He said the main idea was to make it fun.
“It’s like you’re a little person in a big room,” Andaluz said.
While he is busy traveling the country doing jobs, Andaluz says he’s interested in working closer to home as well.
“I’d like to do more on Long Island,” he said.
Photo of Andaluz the Artist and his work at Lindenhurst Library taken by @propixone