Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandra Vista
Hi Sandra, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am frequently asked how I started as an artist. My answer usually is that I have always been an artist. As a child I had a vivid imagination and would create plays and fashion shows. I created a “cat walk” before I had ever seen one. One of my true epiphanies was when I went to the University of Arizona art museum with my seventh grade english class. There I saw my first Mark Rothko painting. Like Alice in Wonderland, I I went through the lookng glass and down the rabbit hole of visual arts. I have been fortunate to have an extensive art education that has taught me how to think and how to live in with a creative mind.
I was an art teacher for Los Angeles Unified School district for thirty years. However, I always continued to work on my artwork an exhibit since graduate school. Now, living in my dtla art studio for twenty six years, I continue to participate in art exhibitions and produce work that can be viewed at my art studio and other venues.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My life has not been a smooth road, but in retrospect my challenges are not as difficult as other people around me. As I get older my lens and heart help me realize how fortunate I am. As a visual artist there are challenges in creating consistent bodies of work. There is also competition, acceptance, and rejection as part of the life of an artist.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a mixed media artist and pattern painter. I am intriqued by the way things are designed and appreciate the “thinking'”
that’s involved in creating all the things we use on a daily basis. My mixed media work uses objects like zipper tabs, old mobile phones and walking sticks to accentuate with strings of beads. The covering/abstracting of objects is related to my influence of Christo and the Dadaists like Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. The pattern paintings are formal in their execution, focusing on the elements and principles of design. The colors are intentionally dissonant, the themes do contain some organic images combined with stripes in black and white or red and yellow. The stripes are resting and caution spots as seen in our daily environment wirth hazard signs that alert us.
Recently, I have been exhibited my mixed media work. The use of zipper tabs as a pattern field on a panel, have been requested by gallerists. Additionally, my beaded gourds, phones, and walking sticks will be on exhibit this year. I want to focus more on my current painting series, the third series since I have lived in dtla, an find a gallery that will showcase my work. .
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
One important lesson is not to take things personally. And never ever give up.
Pricing:
- Galleries take 50%, my studio allows 15-20 % professional courtesy
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sandravista.com
- Instagram: sandrasuevista
- Facebook: sandravista
- Youtube: Sandra Vista
