Johnny Sandler

 This is the Johnny Sandler Gallery.       

                    "People ask me how I do it from time to time, And I can break it down for them as far as choosing the perspective, the subject matter, the materials, the tools, the light source('S), the style, the colours, the Tints and the shades; from beginning to end. I figure out the arrangement before I go into it, but while I am working I am not thinking about anything until I am out of it. I really just watch two arms bring it to life. So really All I can tell them are the steps I take and the mechanics I know, The relaxation during is like a meditation I am in the whole of my subconscious when I am creating."

Life has never been straight forward for Johnny Sandler, during his teenage years he toured the US and the UK playing in many bands, Nothing famous, Diy kind of stuff.
He came from an artistic family and started painting and drawing with his father (an English, Spanish and art teacher) at the age of six. One day while watching his father paint with oil he asked his father if he could paint, his father gave him a pencil and paper and told him to draw a portrait, the following years Johnny learned to work with a number of different mediums, and the fundamentals of art.

Being on tour allowed him to see art in many cities across the US, Canada and Mexico, he could see how it was different from city to city.
In 2003 he moved to Chicago to take him out of his familiar surroundings and really concentrate on his art and focus all his energy on fine tuning his art work in a distraction less environment.

It was in this environment he gained mentors in Darlene Dommell and Picasso Gaglione, who are San Francisco artists (www.stamplandchicago.com) in the abstract of Fluxus and Dada. The 'Surrogate Parents' explained the fundamentals of found art, abstract art and the importance of these natural wonders, he explains:

'It was things like looking at a dead moth on a side walk, you stare at it and you can find its artistic value'

Being an artist in the city is hard and Johnny worked many bar and restaurant jobs to support himself, it was here he met Lesley a young artist who had studied art in France and Italy, he was immediately attracted to her raw talent and her knowledge of art history, which helped Johnny learn a lot about art appreciation.

A close friend (Stefan) worked in the database of the Chicago Art institute where Johnny would often spend time after hours and study its exhibits, being in a new city and being broke this proved to be a lifeline in helping him to study the works of everyone from Divinci to Warhol close up and uninterrupted. This also gave him a window into what else was going on in the city and he would attend exhibitions and shows for many local artist.

It was networking at one of these shows where he met Alex Higgins of La Porte, Indiana; they became close friends and collaborated on many artistic ideas and concepts.

'I learned a lot from Alex, especially simple things like composition'

After and accident, four surgeries and a bone transplant later which left him unable to walk properly for 2 years and joint problems in his ankle from the bitter cold of Chicago, Johnny moved to a warmer state with Lesley and ended up in St Petersburg, Florida early 2007. This is when he started to incorporate everything he knew into one body of work, composing realism with abstract and negative spaces, Johnny continues:

' I like to experiment with shapes, colors, I like their to be an even balance even if the realism is just four or five tones of grey and black I like the abstract to be as many shapes and colors as I can cram onto the Body of work, I think this is just as important as the realism'

'when I create something I have two intentions, to get my style out and fully expressed, and not to compromise my integrity and do portraits of people I don't necessarily respect, I will never do a negative painting'

'they say when you lose a sense all your other senses become better, when I couldn't walk I had all the time in the world to sit down and paint, as that was pretty much all I could do, so I learned possibly the most important lesson here, to take your time.' So now I walk slow and When you walk slow you get to see the world around you in it's more natural form...