The following text is an excerpt from the introductory essay that appears in the book that is a collection of Andrew's art called ‘Things I Don’t Remember’ published in 2004 by Holy Water:

As the publisher’s phone calls were becoming increasingly frantic, I was getting more and more desperate. In hindsight, my foresight should not have been trusted, but the past can’t be undone and I cannot pretend that I didn’t kidnap Andrew and hold him hostage in a dirty hotel room near Lake Ontario.

The three days and nights with Andrew Pommier gave me great clarity, as well as a view into the mind of the artist when forced to bargain for his own life. During the tense standoff, our conversations evolved the obvious threats, curses and warnings, to the most beautiful discussions on life, love and art. And when the eventual storm of police officers blew through the room and took me away, I knew that not only did I have a good angle for my story, but I had made a new best friend.

Andrew has continued to visit me in prison, sometimes even smuggling in cigarettes and hash that I can use to gain protection from the larger inmates. He is such a wonderful person-he holds no grudge and is still encouraging me to finish this introduction for his book. Sometimes when Andrew visits he brings me his new paintings and sketches, all rendered with his clean drawing style and unique ‘funny because it is sad’ perspective. From behind these bars I have become to understand the appeal of his smoking rabbits and swearing birds, the hypnotic and unsettling stares of his masked boys and girls, and the deadpan humour of his gnarled old men. My cellmate ‘Queenie’ was even heard to remark that “His pictures provoke a feeling of loss and isolation between people and nature-characters hiding out in animal costumes, smoking their lives away, destroying their bodies-these themes speak of a great divide, as well as showcasing Pommier’s ironic sentimentality for misfits and castaways.” But then again, Queenie was an English major before he murdered two teenagers.

Adam Brodie
Inmate 24601

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