Fank Andrews – Sculptor, Memorial

Frank E. Andrews, Jr., Oct 1939 – May 2025

I first had the privilege of getting to know Frank when he and his partner, Michael Drabbs (F), hired me to work in their business, The Sculpture Studio, in late 1975.

I was just starting my first year of college at The Kansas City Art Institute, when they hired me to make welded-metal sculpture. Little did I know that I Frank and I would remain friends for almost 50 years.

The whole story…

Not long after starting college, I saw a job ad on a bulletin board at the Artitute (our slang term for the Kansas City Art Institute) for a sculptor-trainee. I applied immediately, even though I had never had an art job of any kind, and had never used any kind of welding equipment. The business owners, Frank and “Mike” (Michael, actually, and a woman) had a small business making welded-metal sculpture out of brass, copper and steel in their basement, which they then sold in arts and crafts shows throughout the midwest. Incredibly, they hired me.

Going to work for them changed my world. They had been living and working in Austin, Texas, but moved to Kansas City not long before I met them. They also had a small cadré of friends from Austin (who were, like Frank and Mike, hippies, about 10 years older than me). They all befriended me and showed me unbelievable kindness, teaching me welding, scuplture, art as a business, alternative thinking and intellectualism, joint rolling, and so much more. It was a VERY special time in my life, the memories of which I’ll always hold dear.

I worked for them from late 1975 through 1979. Starting about 1977, they rented an old building in the Westport area of Kansas City, and moved all production operations there. It was an old stone-walled ice house (now demolished). To my everlasting astonishment and luck, I was given free-reign to work whenever I pleased. In retrospect, it’s absolutely incredible to me the love and kindness Frank and Mike bestowed on me.

November 1975

So, here I was, a naïve, sheltered art student a few months into my first year, learning to make welded-metal sculpture in the basement of a couple of well-to-do hippie-intellectuals – and even though I’d had several jobs prior to that, none had been essential full-time jobs that my survival depended on, much less any kind of art job. I was in heaven.

The sculptures they had me making were small tabletop items and larger wall hangings – a single copper rose with copper leaves and a brass stem mounted on a piece of driftwood, a brass branch with copper leaves that hung on a wall, and dozens of similar, nature-oriented concepts. Everything was made of brass, copper and steel. We used small oxy-acetylene torches with an inline liquid flux system (I still have one of the gas-flux units). Everything we created was sold at shopping-mall arts and craft shows in the midwest. I had no role in the sales of their stuff – only making the goods.

A final note…

Frank and Mike treated me almost like a family member rather than an employee. Frank was especially nice to me, almost treating me like a son (he was almost 20 years older than me). Their kindness and wisdom and intellect (both had masters) has had a lifelong impact on me, and I am deeply grateful to them both.

Note – this is a work in progress, and will be added to as time permits.