“My journey is my artistic and spiritual path through my life. It has followed many twists and turns to arrive at the present. In the artistic sense, it began when, as a small child. My earliest drawings were of children, ice-skating and playing, and of horses, having discovered them at summer camp. Throughout my school years my work was uninspired. I lacked a sense of who I was and what was meaningful and important to me, and I was at a loss as to how to express these things. But life has a way of firing creativity if we are open to it.
Travels to exotic lands opened the door to an interest in indigenous peoples and cultures not yet overwhelmed and changed by modern technology. My time spent in nature fueled a connection with the beauty and fragility of the planet. Ideas lay dormant while I pursued other interests and began to surface after I attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago full-time for two years at the age of 31.
My pastel paintings featured here in the Spa at La Posada de Santa Fe represent where I am in the present moment. My life is becoming simpler, and no doubt this will influence the work yet to come. Where I go next is still undefined, although I feel a hint of a shift.
My deep concern with climate change has led me to focus more specifically in my recent paintings on the beauty, vitality and connection of elements of the natural environment: weather, water, rocks, trees, and endangered species, as they relate to our human presence and our activity on the planet. Painting the indigenous people of foreign lands as they come to terms with these changes, while trying to preserve their ancient cultures, is an ongoing interest.
Living in New Mexico has shown me new possibilities and expanded my horizons, both physically and spiritually. The study of Eastern thought and Japanese calligraphy has helped me to quiet my mind and discover my essence and purpose. Poetry, especially Japanese Haiku and American nature poets, and the study of Chinese and Japanese painting have influenced my ways of seeing and perceiving.
The practice of art is a gift to the giver and to the receiver. We are all the giver and the receiver. Communication brings us together and bonds.
I paint both for the joy of the act itself, which at its best is the unconscious working of something bigger speaking through me, and with the desire of finding a connection with the viewer, of communicating something universal, and opening the viewer to something deeper. It is an invitation to stop, to be quiet, and to notice things we often overlook in our busyness and habitudes. The important and meaningful things that are all around us are the real beauty of this life on this amazing and wonderful planet. My desire in creating my paintings that reflect this beauty is to elicit an emotional response from the viewer.”
Please contact La Posada’s Art Curator, Sara Eyestone regarding the art of Sandra Place or any of our other Gallery Collection Artists. We sell their work at their studio prices. The hotel does not mark up the price. Furthermore, if you purchase original art from La Posada you will be invited back each time you return, with the exception of four blackout dates, with a discounted room and no daily resort fees. It is our way of thanking you for supporting artists.
