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Andy Watkins

Menasah, WI, United States

Andy “Cosmo-Joe” Watkins grew up in a modest home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He first immersed himself in the art world during his youth at Roosevelt Middle School for the Arts. Throughout his teens and twenties he held several mid-level management jobs, while developing his unique painting style and technique. Inspired by Bob Ross, Cosmo-Joe seems to create images out of thin air, and much like Ross, his images often represent the familiar things in the world around He soon gained media attention for his street shows and radical style of spray painting and now can be found most summer Saturdays on State Street in Madison, WI painting before large crowds. He has toured across the United States and his work has been described as “mesmerizing” by The New York Times, but he remains humbled and inspired by the people of Wisconsin and has become an integral part of the Madison experience and a State Street Icon