Sandi Luck

The Brighter Side of Life -- Meet Sandi Luck

by Chris Lynd

 

 

Sandi Luck’s studio is an untidy jumble of wonderful stuff: colourful paint and dyes, papers, fabric, rolls of ribbon, jars of buttons and beads and boxes of bright threads. She can’t remember a time when she wasn’t incorporating such items into a project. As a young girl, she drew and painted pictures and was always crafting something with her brother and sisters. At the age of eight, she was already using a sewing machine for clothing for herself and her dolls. In her teen years, she made and sold cloth dolls, partly from a pattern and partly from her own creative and emerging ideas. And later she created and sold naïve folk art paintings on wood.

She is a designer, fibre artist, student and burgeoning entrepreneur. Sandi is an artist who has embraced bright colours, interesting geometrics and textures that beg to be touched. Her favourite coat of all time was lime green and orange fun fur. And the first outfit she recalls sewing for herself was fiery orange.

 

 

Sandi leans to the brighter side of life, seeks the silver lining and strives to laugh each day. This steadfast attitude is reflected in the art she makes. She has always been someone who has the ability to think beyond the lines and shapes that have been provided and has proven that she has the skills to take her ideas and create objects and clothing that delight!

Formally trained in art at Dawson College in Montreal, Sandi later graduated from Fleming College’s Textile Surface Design course in 2005. Hard work, training and dedication have brought her recognition and funding from granting organizations and an awarded spot at the One of a Kind show in 2009. Sandi loves to travel and her current work in silk felting, wet felting and digital imagery draws from the lessons learned at workshops in Vancouver, Philadelphia and Minneapolis. While in New York City, she saw the work of Aminah Brenda Lyn Robinson and knew that this was a pivotal moment in her development. This artist combined found objects, buttons, threads, neckties and fabrics to create incredible sculptural materials.

“I was immediately inspired and encouraged to push myself, try new things and be more abstract in my work,” says Sandi.

 

Sandi finds inspiration in childlike colours and shapes. With this in mind, she creates colourful streetscape collages that incorporate off-kilter shapes and little gems that give energy, movement and joy to the scene. She reflects back on a trip to Newfoundland where up and down the street are bright, energetic houses that beg the visitor to stop and look and come right in.

“I try to bring this feeling to my art. I am very pleased when my work makes people smile. A simple smile means that I have brought some joy and lightness to their life.”

Sandi describes her working process as “just playing about and making a mess” which harkens back to her play as a child. “For most of my pieces, I work intuitively. My successes are a result of taking time to play rather than plan. Currently, I am trying to hone my techniques, like producing felt that is fine, light weight and soft to the touch. I recently purchased a large printer and am working on creating designs to print on fabric, so I will need to do more planning for those pieces.”

A constant theme in Sandi’s technique is layering.

“I pile things on top of each other – colours, shapes and textures – until I like what I see. This includes various fabrics, threads, found objects and hardware that all come together to make a piece that pleases me. I am never sure of the final product and look for things that surprise me and guide me.”

 

   

 

She also produces fanciful, yet practical, wearable art and objects. Her hats, shawls, cuffs and bowls are truly different and an example of her attention to detail, accomplished skills and ability to create things that are just a bit different from the rest.

Sandi is a founding member of The Art Hive Maple Lake Artisans Collective (an artist co-operative in Haliburton County) and a Board member of the Arts Council~Haliburton Highlands. She hosts a summer one-day art sale yearly at her home on Redstone Lake and includes the art work of several of her friends and colleagues. Everyone is welcome to visit this year’s Art in the Garden on August 6th.

 

Her love of history and architecture has her preparing for Layers of Time exhibit at Rails End Gallery in Haliburton with fellow artist Terry Wright. At this exhibition (August 13 – September 24, 2011), Sandi will present something new. In fact, even she is unsure of the final product as she works through her most recent lessons and experiments in digital imagery. One thing we can be sure of – there will be flowing silk banners layered with historical and present day images and some of that ‘great and wonderful stuff’ from her studio.

Sandi lives with her family in Haliburton and splits her time between Mill House Design, the family landscape and construction business, work in her studio, and the arts community.