Enter the World of Brian Andreas and the Story People

The Trickster Tale

Andreas and his family no longer live in Decorah. After a series of cross-country moves where they traded the comfort and safety of a small town in the Midwest with the far less frozen climes of California, they have now settled in Santa Barbara. But he returns often to the business he founded in 1993 to bounce ideas off his collaborators — 23 employees in all — many of whom have stuck with him since the company’s earliest days, More recently, he has come back to launch the international gallery expansion of the Story People.

He sleeps in a converted loft above the graphics studio when he is in town. The space is huge, with unfinished wooden steps, steep, leading to the top. A sleigh bed and a giant white sofa sit at the front of the apartment, facing Water Street, Decorah’s main thoroughfare. Lots of artwork from around the world, some from a little closer, some originals of his own, line the walls.

Sitting at the kitchen’s island, Andreas pulls out his iPhone and starts pinching away at pictures of his new, pre-fab eco-home designed by hot West Coast green designer and architect Michelle Kaufmann. The family was featured on the first episode of Green Home on HGTV in early December, 2007.

"People are finally coming around to going green not being a marketing strategy — it’s necessary to live on the planet."

The Story People is not the only art Andreas creates — but it is the one thing he does that hits the mainstream. He sees the Story People in part as a means to fuel his other artistic work, which currently includes video work and artist collaboration with the Santa Barbara-based Fishbone Collective. From the look of his digs in Decorah and Santa Barbara, the story business is booming.

"With the Story People, I think, this accessible, this makes sense," Andreas says. "In the theater, if an actor doesn’t connect with his audience, he can walk away. I don’t know why people don’t expect that from the visual arts."

Andreas is slim with a medium build. In black clothing and with a neatly trimmed grey moustache, he is stylish, but with an air of benevolence, like the European jet set’s Captain Kangeroo. He says his highest goal for the Story People has always been getting the stories out in the world, and that’s a mantra his employees echo. Though many of the works produced at the Story People workshops bear the phrase "Enter the World of Brian Andreas and the Story People," he insists the whole project isn’t about him, but the power of story as a means to transform lives.

The story he has chose for his own life is that of the trickster tale. In Native American mythology, the trickster tale introduced us to a meek, unassuming character who calls upon his wits and bravery to defeat a larger, more powerful enemy. Often, it becomes impossible to take anything Andreas says seriously, for he can say pretty outlandish things. He feels no need to be seen as serious, credible or even intelligent. That has never driven him. But there is a logic to his zaniness — one that is wrapped up in how he sees his personality interacting with the world.

"I am committed the way you make a choice to commit to a character on stage
," Andreas said. "I’m totally committed to whatever I am saying at the moment, but do I believe it? Andreas asks. "I believed it when I said it."

That can make for a frustrating business culture.

"At the Story People, every single thing is up for discussion every day," says Annette Laitenen, who handles sales and has worked in the sculpture studio.

Consider the case of the commissioned Brian Andreas story. Andreas used to take commissions fairly often, but hasn’t done such a story for two years — since the last time a client mistook his storytelling impetus for ad copy. He took on a commission to write a story and delivered one that he said was gorgeous, one that struck all the right notes: wry humor, moving sentiment, and a story circling into itself. But the client wanted a bowl of keys in the story. Couldn’t he just put a bowl of keys in the story? Since that would make the story more specific to us, the client said.

"The Story was perfect as it was," Andreas said. "If I’m in that mode now, I’ll do commissioned work, but if I’m writing love stories to [his wife] Ellen, I’m writing love stories to Ellen."

What he will do is donates already completed stories to causes or give them to humanitarian organizations. His commitment to using his work to commemorate the tragedies of the past decade — 9/11, the Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina — has made him a go-to guy for charitable art commissions. If he writes a story that fits with a cause, he’ll donate it, without reservation.

But he doesn’t take requests.