Sandy Kessler Kaminski

Sweet 16 2020 acrylic on polytab mounted on panel 40 x 30in 2022

I used to think my process is like a three-legged stool. I draw, I paint and I build. But as time as gone on, everything leads to painting. My reliefs are cut out paintings and my drawings have become preliminary designs. Painting has become all that I think about. I tell my students that painting is a contact sport. That if you want to sit on your butt and daub, then you are not truly experiencing the joy of work. I feel like I am an observer in an unobservant world. I see all the nonsense people do to one another and am helpless to stop any of it. In response, I create places where overlooked individuals become iconic representations of the daily life. Sometimes it is frustrations, injustices and unfairness, others it is the humor and curiosity of being around other people. Sometimes the person depicted is the subject, often I use a family member as a stand in. I make most of my living working with students and communities as a teaching artist or making public art. These intense interactions fuel my work, opening my eyes to place and people I would never otherwise meet.