NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE
January 16-22, 2003

POLAROIDS & POEMS
by Jennifer Dauphinais

Artist/poet/social provocateur‹Andy Friedman "performs" his art like a musician, telling stories [in front of projections of his] sketches and photographs. His book ["Drawings & Other Failures"] is like a mix tape from an old college roommate; unpolished and familiar. Sometimes he'll stop to read a poem. . .mirroring an old-style radio show in the method of Garrison Keillor.

Friedman's Beat-renaissance-meets-Walt Whitman approach to divulging personal moments with lovers and landscapes reveal him as a "ramblin' man romantic" type. "Believe I'll Settle Down" (in photo), a soft pencil portrait of his girlfriend sleeping, takes a voyeuristic image and illuminates it through the poetry of his mind's eye. He'll bring his live show of Polaroids, drawings, and more to Koffee Too? (276 York St., New Haven, 787-9929) on January 17 at 9PM.