About Me

I have been painting large scale murals for twenty-five years around the globe. Golf has become a new passion in my life and merging my art with sport has been quite rewarding.

What is your Passion? Let’s paint it on a club!

View a full portfolio of my art here. 

Excerpt from Q&A interview with Sarah Slavin:

A fourth generation artist, Andrew Tedesco has been making art since high school and studied art history and art studio at the University of Maryland. As a muralist, for more than three decades, he has worked for high profile private clients, such as Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, as well as businesses, such as Manhattan’s Barclay Hotel and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

It wasn't until he joined a golf country club that he found a second passion of playing golf. Now, he's found a way to combine his two pursuits. Shortly after joining the club Tedesco had the idea to create hand-painted golf clubs for fellow, golfers, friends and organizations. Now, when he's not painting on walls and ceilings, he is focusing on the much smaller canvases of golf driver heads.

HOW DID YOU START YOUR HAND-PAINTED GOLF CLUB BUSINESS?

One of the clubs I was looking at buying was made by Ping and it had ribs on it. I asked what those were and the salesman said it was in the shape of dragonfly wings and a bell went off in my head, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I can paint anything I want on these clubs!” I started to mess around with my own clubs and got a few from friends to experiment with. My first club was a Roman goddess. I love Italian Renaissance Art. I hit the golf course and as you are standing there people are like “What is that? And I say, “Oh I painted it,” and it just kind of grew from there.

WHAT DOES THE PROCESS OF PAINTING THE CLUB LOOK LIKE?

We start by sanding the club, to take original shine off. This will give a ‘tooth’ for proper adhesion of our base coat. Then we start to build up the artwork until completed. It then goes into a air-controlled spray booth where the final high gloss automotive finish is applied. It is an involved process but I am starting to learn how to streamline it a little better. There are clubs in the studio right now that are tapped off, some just getting started and others nearly completed. It’s really fascinating when you spend six seven hours on a little painting and then come back to it three days later and you get this new vision of it.

HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE DESIGNS?

I love including the client in the design process. The whole point is to make someone really happy when they look down at the club on the ground. I do a preliminary Photoshop sketch of two or three ideas and then we start to narrow it down from there.

HOW LONG DOES THE PROCESS TAKE?

I like to say 21 days from when the design is finalized, because some clients design phase takes longer than others, while others know exactly what they want.

CAN PEOPLE PLAY WITH THESE CLUBS?

Yes! The intention was always to use these on the course. I contacted the USGA  and they confirmed in writing that these clubs would be completely legal and conforming for all professional and amateur events.

HOW MUCH DOES EACH PAINTED CLUB COST?

The painting generally costs around $1,000. Some clients use their existing club and others send me a brand new one. The cost of the club itself is around $500.

HOW HAS PLAYING GOLF HELPED THE NEW BUSINESS?

It’s really an interesting game. Frustrating and relaxing at the same time! You get to spend four hours with a foursome and you learn a lot about people. That’s what is so amazing about these painted golf clubs: they’re such a great conversation starter. A club pro that I painted his club was a goalie at the University of South Carolina. We put two goalie gloves and a soccer ball with a net over it. When he gets on the tee, everyone says ‘What is that?’ And then he gets to tell them about his glory days, haha. Each club I send out I know have a agent out selling for me.

WHAT IS IT LIKE SPECIALIZING IN MURALS AND THEN SWITCHING TO THE SMALL CANVAS OF A GOLF CLUB?

It’s almost exactly the same: the tools are just different. I painted a drone shot of the Metedeconk National Golf Club House, and it is the same approach as if I was doing a forty foot mural. I. Would paint the sky first; that is the farthest thing away, then you do the hills and trees, followed by the clubhouse and 18th green in the foreground. My tools are different and the aches and pains are a little different. When I am working on giant scaffolding, my legs and feet are sore but when I am painting the clubs, my neck and shoulders get very tight. All for the sake of fine art!

WHAT’S THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR GOLF CLUBS AND CONVENTIONAL ONES?

If you asked any golfer “Where’s your old club from three years ago?” Most golfers don’t just throw them out so it is in the basement collecting dust. They never get used again. But the cool thing with Hand Painted Golf Clubs are you can keep them on your desk or mantel. I even had a client mount his to wall. So, there’s this whole other side of it where it becomes this sculptural piece of art, not only something you can play golf with.