About Odd Andersen

Born and raised in a Scandinavian neighborhood in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, Odd Andersen began drawing cartoons at an early age. At 15 he briefly studied painting with a local artist who ran an art supply store, and then again in the 1980s at the Ridgewood New Jersey Art School, but Andersen is mostly self-taught. He has been painting for about 55 years, mostly after retiring, when time became more available.

The seafaring tradition runs deep in Odd Andersen’s blood. The now Norwood, NJ resident, spent almost three decades as a dock builder on the New York and New Jersey waterfronts. During this time, he worked on such projects as the construction of the Tappan Zee and Throgs Neck Bridges as well as docks at Port Newark, Port Elizabeth and the Brooklyn waterfront. His love of the waterfront was evident early on. Andersen’s father was born in Norway and went to sea as a teenager, making two voyages on whaling ships to Antarctica before he was 16. For most of his life, the elder Andersen worked on square riggers, large sale ships designed for full ocean voyages