We recently connected with Sandy Middleton and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sandy, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I had a variety of jobs when I was in photography school and just after. I worked in hospitality and events for a major concert hall in Toronto. I really learned more about business in that job, more so than I was ever taught in school. People do comment that I seems to have a good sense for business unlike so many artists. I learned how to sell, meet with clients, systems, paperwork, pricing, inventory, act professionally. All of that informed my ability to not only be an artist but understand how business works. Currently I am artist but I also work helping small business get off the ground in St. Catharines where I live.

Sandy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a mixed media photographic artist who resides in St.Catharines, Ontario. My education and background is in still photography with a degree from Ryerson University. Later I went on to study both Graphic and Interior Design Post University. For close to 20 years I lived and worked as a commercial photographer in Toronto but was interested in switching directions to a more creative practice. After relocating to St.Catharines, I was able begin making both fine art & conceptual based work. Exhibiting extensively throughout Ontario including shows such as the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, The Artist Project, as well as gallery exhibitions, including The Grimsby Public Art Gallery and the Carnegie Gallery. In 2021 I was chosen as one of 52 finalists for the Salt Spring National Arts Award. Additionally I am the recipient of several Ontario Arts Council Grants and was nominated on two occasions as Established Artist for the St. Catharines Arts Awards. Since coming to Niagara I have been very involved within the arts community on various boards and as the past Chair of the Arts and Culture Committee for the City of St.Catharines for 12 years.

I have been creating new work I call Photo Encaustic Paper Sculpture over the past two years. This current body of paper & encaustic sculptural works, came from solitary time, and forced isolation. Managing the chaos of the external by carefully dissecting time into small manageable moments. Perfect little pieces fluttering, layering then fused together yet still weightless and ethereal.

Presently my work continues to unfold, in layers. It is comprised of layers of meaning, and now, actual layers of materials.
Photography has always been a crucial component of my life but when I discovered the encaustic medium I felt at home. I love the overall process and I see it as a metaphor for life itself. A painting evolves through the accumulation of countless layers of the hot, melted, encaustic medium. I think of how this cumulative process of layering and fusing layers resembles the collection of life experiences. Each layer presents options, possibilities and choices. The image, while important is deconstructed to allow for subliminal connection with the viewer.
Primarily I have been a photographer for much of my life but I have emersed myself into previously undiscovered realms of expression, using mediums new to me. Shape, line, layers, textures all familiar within my previous works, yet approached in a fresh way in order to break from the expected. The past years that have been so difficult because of the changes in our environments, it seemed a fitting time to challenge norms and expectations in one’s art practice.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

One of the things I had to examine as an artist was my relationship to money. Coming from a position of scarcity is very common with artists, we have all heard of the term starving artist. There are many of us that toil and struggle to find an audience and make sales. Not everyone gets launched out of art school a star. It takes time to find your way, find your voice. For me it likely took 30 years of trying many things before I got here. I think the pandemic made me really look internally as to not what would be popular or would sell but what I had to say and what I was feeling.

The new work I have created really came out of that thinking of expression, abundance and differences. I have always used photography in my work, I have printed on many different surfaces or substrates, I had collaged and I had cut up my photos before. However this time it all came together differently. By dissecting one image and then in a sense recreating it, reorganizing the pieces really spoke to me about the times we were going through. Most of us made it through Covid but we aren’t quite the same as we were before, these paper sculpture were the perfect metaphor for this experience of putting ourselves back together.

I listen to a lot of audio books when I work in my studio, although I am not really a self help person two books really resonated with me. Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic is a book I listen to yearly. It really helps me to get inside the fear associated with being creative and regain my strength to keep trying. The other book was You are a Badass by Jen Sincero, from her I really learned about that relation ship with money and scarcity thinking. I found both books really helped me to think differently.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have pivoted more times than I can remember. I started after school as a studio photographer. I actually thought before starting school I was going to be a fashion photographer and make beautiful images like Richard Avedon. When the time came I really didn’t enjoy photographing people. I preferred still life and landscape. I photographed babies and weddings and products and interiors but I didn’t find the creativity in that type of work was missing. I wanted to be an art photographer but really didn’t know how. I pivoted into fine craft for a number of years from handmade cards and books, to making lamps and clocks and textiles with my images on them. I did the design shows and the large craft shows and had a lot of success with all of it. Fortunately as I got older and more stable I was able to return to my roots of making art with my photography. I am really enjoying the journey as I explore my new work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sandymiddletonartist.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandymiddletonartist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandymiddletonartist

Image Credits
Sandy Middleton