Self-taught North Shore artist blends painting and spirituality for debut show in Highland Park

When Andrew Moreno works on a painting, he focuses on what he calls the spirit.

If he listens to it closely, the spirit’s energy will tell him which canvas to use, which color to smear, which shape to draw — and the closer he listens, the easier the paintings come. 

The first painting he ever made by that method sold to famous actress Jodie Foster.

After that, Moreno painted for a year and a half, sometimes working on six artworks at once in his bedroom before God told him he needed to stop. He gave away all his art supplies, didn’t touch a canvas for six years, then started again last year, painting 100 pieces in just three months. 

“Sometimes the painting tells me that I need to find these found objects,” Moreno said. “So I kind of put that vision in my head as to what shape it needs to be, how thick and all these details, and I just go out for a walk, and then the piece comes to me. It’s kind of a manifestation.”

The Art Center Highland Park will exhibit more than 60 of Moreno’s abstract expressionist paintings, many from that prolific time period, from 6-10 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, as part of the Highland Park born-and-raised artist’s first solo exhibition, Lo Que No Se Ve (What Is Not Seen). 

The one-night-only event will also feature a live music performance from Moreno’s band Psychefelix, a raffle of selected artwork, and food and drinks from Sabor a Norte Catering, a Mexican catering company run by Moreno’s father. Tickets to the exhibit cost $45. 

Moreno, who goes by the artist name MM, recalled his love of art started with the drums, not painting.

He beat on pots and pans with sticks until his mother bought him a kit when he was 10. For the next eight years, he would come home from school and play drums for six hours straight until he couldn’t anymore, he said.

Later, when he was 26, Moreno streaked some charcoal with acrylic paint and oil pastels on a blank canvas that his then-girlfriend had lying around. His mother brought what became the abstract portrait of a three-eyed person to a family friend’s house in Glencoe.

Foster was passing through the home on a book tour and liked the painting so much she bought it, Moreno said. The experience inspired him to paint more and get to know his spirit more — a force that doesn’t speak in human language but through energy forms, he described.

Formative years

Like his creativity, Moreno’s sense of spirituality began when he was young. His family didn’t have a lot of money and moved around Lake County frequently, so Moreno grew to keep to himself and prioritize his inner life rather than attach to friends that might not be around soon, he said. 

Moreno’s spirituality informs the way he moves through life. When he walks past strangers having a conversation on the street, he listens to their words for answers the universe is providing to questions he hasn’t asked yet. This attunement isn’t something you can explain to people, he said; you either possess it from prior lifetimes you worked on yourself or you don’t. 

While working on a painting one day, Moreno searched online for a reference image and encountered a slide that said “Abandon All Art.” Accepting that as a sign from the universe, he left the piece unfinished and didn’t make another painting for at least six years. 

The hiatus kicked off with approximately five months of meditating, walking and reading religious texts like “The Book of Genesis” and “The New Testament” for hours at a time. It felt “healing,” he said, as he fasted for days and spoke little to others, even if that caused some tension at home. 

“My family would kind of take it personal. Like, ‘Why don’t you want to talk to me?’ I was like, ‘I do,’ but I just wanted to focus more on myself,” Moreno recalled.

“We’re two different entities, so it’s more so about pleasing God because he knows more than anyone else around me. So why not listen to that voice and that energy to transform my life.”

Moreno gave away his drum kit and all his art supplies when he committed to that years-long “spiritual journey,” so when he started making art again in 2024 — in part due to urging from his family — he just used newspapers and crayons that his sister, a school teacher, had available. 

But Moreno found the constraints helpful. He sold some paintings to get art supplies and began painting again at a rapid clip. Thursday’s gallery will feature a range of works from this time, as well as a huge 8-by-4-foot centerpiece titled “The Golden Rule” from before his break. 

Moreno said his intuitive art practice has helped him understand who he is, how he listens and responds to life. He looks forward to meeting new people during his first solo show and, rather than explaining what his paintings represent, hearing how others perceive the works he’s created.

“I feel so excited because for me, the joy is to share my crafts with everyone else and to inspire people,” Moreno said. 

“Basically, it’s not really about me, but it’s about sharing my love with everyone else, like really being present with every single person that comes in contact with me, and saying, ‘Hey, I’m here for you. I don’t know you, but I’m here to listen to every single thing you have to say.”

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.