Local Artist Sandy Sandy brings her 50 years of experience to the Medford Art Center starting next month.
Tabernacle resident and artist Sandy Sandy will showcase a career’s worth of her art at the Medford Art Center from Aug. 15 to Sept. 15.
Sandy, a declared artist since she started giving art lessons out of her parents’ garage at age 13, plans to fill the entire MAC — upstairs, downstairs and along all the hallways — with art she’s created over the course of her career as a fine artist.
Sandy, who was born Sandra Sandy but was always called Sandy Sandy, is a graduate of the Moore College of Art & Design who has her BFA in painting and illustration. Upon her graduation, she entered the field of commercial art as she opened her own sign, advertising and illustration business that lasted for almost 20 years. Ever since, Sandy remained an entrepreneur, creating art and teaching others how to make it.
“The main goal is to create some sort of curiosity and interest,” she said over the phone while vacationing and visiting her sister in Colorado.
“I’m always searching and exploring as an artist,” she added. “I want to see where my imagination and my many years of skill, technique and knowledge that I’ve gained over the years can help me express a deeper and broader following [so] a lot more people can relate to it.”
Sandy works in a variety of mediums, including the old-fashioned acrylic and watercolors, both staples of mediums utilized in modern art. However, she also utilized two exciting and new mediums, which she also gives lessons on: alcohol ink and yupo paper. A mix of all these mediums will be on display during the exhibition at the MAC.
According to the Yupo website, Yupo is “100 percent recyclable, waterproof, tree-free synthetic paper with attributes and properties that make it the perfect solution for a variety of marketing, design, packaging and labeling needs.”
Utilizing alcohol inks creates a marbled effect, which is visible in many of Sandy’s paintings.
“It’s a retrospective show,” Sandy described. “I’ve always needed to create even as a little kid. It’s always been a driving force with me and it’s always been a passion, so I want to help out the Medford Art Center as well.”
As a result, Sandy will be offering “special show pricing,” with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the MAC.
Sandy will be on hand at the MAC for a reception on Sept. 8 from 6–8 p.m. Plans for an earlier reception on Aug. 18 are tentative. The earlier reception will likely be held from 7–9 p.m., according to Sandy. However, plans have yet to be finalized for it.
Sandy, who’s lived in Tabernacle for the past 35 years, said she’s highly influenced by the impressionism of Van Gogh and Monet.
“I don’t think my paintings should look like photographs,” she said, adding she wants her art to “have more of my emotion into it.”
Sandy makes a point to leave her art up to interpretation.
“I want the viewer to fill in the gaps in their own personal way,” she said. “I try to go beyond just the physical in my work. I try to create something that touches people in an emotional level.”
