Much of my art is for sale. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing art.

Why do I make art? What am I trying to do when I work?

I have always been immersed in art; my grandfather was a painter by profession and I liked to draw as a child. However I did not enjoy art classes and abandoned a college art major after eighteen months. Making "art" was an occasional hobby until I moved to Port Townsend in 1998, when making art became part of my daily life.

I work with a variety of media, and have a great interest in sculpture. I often use assembly in my process. I enjoy the layering and combining that is intrinsic to print making, and I appreciate and use the element of surprise in my work. My focus is on the end result rather than the technique.

I make art to please myself, but my best work is also a form of communication. I hope to capture your attention and to take you to somewhere else for a moment. I want to share the sense of wonder and mystery I feel when I create.

I become totally absorbed in the process of making things, in the logistics of assembling, printmaking, painting or carving. I am addicted to this, and don't mind some frustration along the way. Overcoming obstacles contributes to the ultimate satisfaction.

The process is not enough; I also want to create satisfactory work! Ideally my art will evoke a story, an emotion, a mood, or a sense of surprise in the viewer. It should spark the imagination, cause you to see something in a new way, or experience an unexpected feeling. I struggle to create art that will do this.

There are many applicable words: balance, tension, beauty, energy, etc. Basically I look for both a surface level aesthetic: the products of color, line and form, and also something else: something more illusive to hold my interest over time.

How do I know when a piece is "done"?

I cannot readily explain why certain combinations of images and objects come together for me to create something more than the sum of the parts. I don't want the emphasis to be on the words or the analysis; I want the art work to communicate visually, and to go beyond words.

Occasionally the act of creation is almost magical: I am caught up with excitement, the ideas and the materials mesh together, and I just stop and look, and know!

More often, the work seems to hold promise, yet lack the magic. I may set it aside, but in plain view, for days, weeks, or even months. I may experiment with ideas, trying various combinations. I may seek advise. The piece will be complete when I can enjoy letting my eye linger, when I am satisfied in stopping to consider it in passing, or else the work may just be retired to the collage "parts" drawer!

More About Sandra Stowell

Art has always been important in my life. As a child, I took drawing requests at school, particularly for drawings of fairies! My grandfather, Robert Sivell, made art a lifetime career, painting in oils and teaching at Gray's School of Art (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland). However I did not enjoy art classes, often felt frustrated, and lost my pleasure in drawing. I gave up a college art major after 18 months, returning to school a year later to major in computer science. Art became a minor interest, and my creative efforts were limited to producing batik clothing for Christmas presents.

In 1997, I left a well-paid job in Seattle, Washington for a more satisfying life in Port Townsend. Here my husband and I built a straw bale home. I found myself adding artistic elements to the house, learning to use power tools and construction scrap to make yard art, and even painting a little. Once the house was built, I cautiously tried, and enjoyed, several art workshops and classes. I was becoming an artist.

In 2005 I took both sculpture and painting classes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, at Instituto Allende and at Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. For several years I have attended a weekly mixed media art class when at home in Port Townsend, and I have benefited from many workshops given by Northwest artists.

I have had artwork accepted in several local juried shows, and I put together my first solo show in 2006.