Sande Robert
My first memories are of drawing and painting. I do not know a time when I was not expressing myself through line or color. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was influenced by the powerful bursts of creativity coming from abstract expressionists, abstract figurativists, and a brand new technological age in graphic design.
Graduating from high school at the age of 16, I struggled to find the courage necessary to pursue art full time. Having read about the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, I applied and was delighted to be accepted on full scholarship based solely on my portfolio, at the age of 19, to this institution where many of my heroes (Manuel Neri, Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn, Viola Frey) made their mark. San Francisco allowed me to soak up its visual riches in fabric, sculpture, furniture design, and painting which excited and shaped me. I studied design and illustration and began working for an internationally known graphic designer, Einar Vinje, who fostered in me a strong, independent devotion to purity in the art of all expressions. He exposed me to Robert Motherwell, Miro, and Hans Hoffman’s work, which left an indelible imprint.
Marrying at a young age, I started a family early, and have two lovely daughters who practice each behavioral and relational psychology, respectively. My painting continued through those years but began to come into its own when the abstracts took over as I went through a major life shift ten years ago. Visual and emotional immersion is what I pursue in my work to express an interior landscape that combines with reflections in world mythology, archetypal concepts, current culture, and nature. My paintings are a personal exploration that gives me an opportunity to break down the elemental aspects of a subject, allowing light, color, shape, and balance to become flexible. I can feel the work rising, as well as see images, before approaching the canvas to paint in a direct, engaged relationship with the piece, as it has a life of its own. I follow it, allowing my own energy to respond to and work alongside the energy of the work. I am able to feel who I am, in painting and in life, in the process.
I now live and work on Nantucket island which inspires a great deal of creativity in me.
Young Surfers
Innertube
Children in Waves