About the Artist

He major theme of my work is exploring the ways we live around the world, searching for our commonality and delving into the separations of culture. In working in mixed media I am able to articulate different nuances through various methods. With paper cut-outs, I play with imaginative spaces. Illustration lends a graphic element to details of architecture. I use oil painting when I want to add heft and brevity to historic subject matters, or to further explore color. Watercolors offer a frailty in their delicacy, making them the perfect medium for exploring “the beyond”, the remote places that are threatened politically, environmentally, and geographically. As music is the sound of culture, I research historic instruments and what makes a genre (be it revolution, punishment, racial silencing and maintenance of tradition), and with writing, I explore the voices of the areas of interest while adding mine. With COVID came a pause for international travel and an immense sense of isolation. While exploring our global community, I have also turned inward. With oil paint, I have been exploring what it truly means to be living through this time through self portraiture.

About Artist’s Work:

Whitney Sanford is a San Francisco mixed media artist, with a focus on the history of civilization. Recently included in the de Young “Open” exhibit, Sanford is looking forward to upcoming residencies with D’Clinic in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, and Dentro La Terra in Arielli, Italy. Having worked as a student voice for a large art purchase at Portland Community College and as a research assistant for the late Photography Curator of the Portland Art Museum, Terry Toedtemeier, her work is expansive in productivity, international influence, and a deep root in art history.

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