“My work is above all about Consciousness and Vision.
It is unapologetically about the old concepts of
meaning, truth, and even beauty – concepts which
many may feel are trite or obsolete, but which are
actually concepts which have driven me to choose a
lifetime of being an artist, and which still drive me
today.
I have a love and respect for the history of art. It
continues to be a deep sense of inspiration. Yet I have
no patience for [the] repeating of history’s forms or
concepts simply for the sake of their own preservation.
I feel no need to break from traditional forms as
a means to demonstrate newness as a thing in itself.
I seek substance, and even transformation, through
all I do in art. That I create art is a gift to me, and I
create art with the intent and desire that it be a gift
to others.
I paint what I see. I don’t know if what I see is in my
head or outside of me – probably both and neither. It
is the sensation through my eyes that made me want
to paint, and yet so much of what I do comes from
another part of me than my eyes.
I go to ‘places’ to paint. Places are that important to
me. The imagery around me enters my work. I often
title my work from the place I did it. I have traveled
long ways to paint in places. It’s for the inspiration,
not the appearance. I am guessing that these places
are necessary only to reflect in me what it is that I
truly want to paint.
I feel as if I paint almost as if I am blind. I get up
close and let my body take over. My eyes are only one
of the senses involved. Perhaps I would say it is really
the Inner Eye that sees and guides the outcome of
my work.”
Sandy Walker was born in Washington, D.C. He earned
a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College, Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Afterwards, he studied at the
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine,
and the Boston University School of Fine and Applied
Arts, Massachusetts, before obtaining his Master of
Fine Arts degree from Columbia University, New York
City. Over his forty year career, he has participated in
exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as
abroad. His work can be found in private and public
collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York City; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio;
and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington,
D.C.
In 1980, Walker returned to painting in his studio,
and focused on the landscape’s essence, resulting in
a new pictorial vocabulary at once more abstract and
symbolic. Four years later, he and his wife, dancer
and choreographer Ellen Webb, settled permanently
in Oakland, California.
Walker’s long time interest in the figure was reignited
in the late 1990s. This body of work reveals
a close relationship between landscape and figure,
and compositionally there are occasions in which the
two subjects blur. The ensuing ambiguity has been a
hallmark of Walker’s work for the past thirty years, at
once enigmatic and sublime.
www.sandywalker.com
Website
http://www.sandywalker.com
