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For rising Australian artist Andy Firth, the sheer joy of "transforming a handful of clay into a physical idea," keeps him busy at work as Jack Of e Dust. anks to Firth's alias, he has kept largely undercover for the past decade. But with a current social following of 2.9 million, the self- taught sculpture artist is ready to reveal the man behind the many masks. With no formal training, Andy says that he has "always been artistic" and from a young age, was building LEGO creations, making art and generally enjoying working with his hands. As he grew older, Andy discovered his love for detailed artistry through the painting and design of Warhammer pieces, a type of tabletop gaming miniatures. With creating art always at the helm of his mind, Firth worked long hours as a boat builder for twelve years, eventually taking on an additional part-time job as a video clerk while also continuing to explore his artistic side. Aer being unable to find a decorated human skull available for purchase, Firth decided to fill this unique niche in the art world. With whatever spare hours he could cobble together aer working over seventy hours a week, Andy began to pursue his passion for creating replica skulls as sculptures as a "side hustle" around 2011. Aer two years spent making mad dashes to the postal office to ship off his completed projects (which were growing in demand), Firth knew it was time to move his side gig to his full-time position. In 2013, Andy adopted the moniker, Jack Of e Dust, and jumped into full-time art using his favorite blank canvas: the human skull. VUE ON | DESIGN VUENJ.COM 49

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