How long have you been an artist?
Professionally, seven years.
Are you formally trained? If so, where?
I am self-taught. I don’t follow the rules. I have always been a rebel. There should be no rules in art. Rules were made to be broken.
What is your “day job” if you have one?
I own a court reporting agency, Moriarty Reporting & Video, LLC. I have awesome court reporters and staff who report to me. I don’t do any work. They do everything. I just sign checks. I have been in business for 32 years as a court reporter.
What kind of art do you make?
Photography is my passion.
What draws you to the medium you use?
I am drawn to photography because I can capture a moment in time and freeze it, whether it is a facial expression or a dragonfly poised on a lily petal.
How long have you been involved with The Gateway Gallery?
I am new to
The Gateway Gallery as an artist, but I am very proud to be a part of Gateway Gallery. Every artist works toward the betterment of others in our partnership. It is a perfect business model that many competing businesses could imitate themselves after. There are 18 of us helping each other to succeed instead of competing against one another. It’s the way God wanted us to be, serving one another. That is the reason why Gateway Gallery will always be successful.
What is your proudest artistic accomplishment?
I guess I am most proud of winning an award for First Place for Excellence at the Westport Plaza Art Show. I exhibited with 150 other artists, some of which had degrees in art, and First Place was given to me by two museum curators. I am proud of it because I continually tell my kids, “You can do anything you want to in life if you set your mind and heart to accomplishing your goals.”
Where do you get your inspiration?
My inspiration comes from God and his magnificent creation, this universe. Everywhere I look I see beauty, even in squalor. It’s a gift that God gave to me. I can see beauty in everything.
Why do you make art?
It relaxes me. I enjoy looking at what I have created. All my life I worked in the legal field, mainly left-brained work. Now I get to enjoy the right side of my brain and create art which I like.
Who are your greatest artistic influences?
Photographers Henri Cartier Bresson, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Doisneau, Helmut Newton
What music do you listen to while creating?
I am almost embarrassed by my eclectic choices in music. They keep changing. Yesterday I was listening to Patti LaBelle and singing gospel. The day before that, the Dixie Chicks; the day before that, Beethoven; the day before that Rascal Flatts; the day before that Led Zepplin. See what I mean?
Where is your studio and what is is it like?
My studio is at home. It is a hodge podge of backdrops, lights, tripods, cameras, antique cameras, framed photos, antique photos I collect, and tabletop lighting. It is a huge mess right now.
Do you have any vices for being creative?
Lol! My terrible, loud singing to the music I am playing. Once my son came home and stood in the doorway of my studio laughing while watching me before I noticed he was there. Sometimes I can’t sit still and I dance at my desk to the music I am listening to because I am impatient because my computer runs too slow for me while I create in Photoshop. I also love a bowl of salty pistachios, too, to keep me busy while I create.
How often do you create?
Never on schedule, never by the rules, and only when I am in the mood. Lol!
What is your family like?
Crazy, but I love them. My husband is my biggest fan and worst critic. My daughter likes to create her own photography. She’s pretty good, too. My son could care less about anything other than girls right now. They rarely want to see what I have done because Mom is just messing around with her photos. I have to make them sit and look and sometimes they are not so patient with me. Now I know how my poor mom felt when she wanted us to listen to her poetry. No one paid attention to her. I wish I could hear her read one of her poems just one more time.
Where do you get your creative talent?
God. I am totally inspired by His works of art.
What is your first memory of being a creative?
I was seven and had a camera. I took a lot of pictures of farm animals at a field trip and of the other kids. I was pretty much a loner at that age but I always had my camera. I love my camera and to this day I am never afraid to do anything alone when I have my camera. It’s my security blanket. I can compete with the best of them as long as I have my camera.
What hobbies do you have?
I am a jewelry addict. I need a support group. It’s no longer a hobby but an addiction. Lol! I love to buy antique estate jewelry. I have too much now and my family has accused me of being a jewelry hoarder. I love to cook, read, listen to music, and go for long walks alone in the woods with my camera.
What do you do for entertainment?
I like to try new restaurants with my husband, see movies at home or in the theater, and I enjoy wine tastings. I am not a sports fan, but I love the art museum and shopping for antiques and traveling around the world with my family.
Why does the world need art?George Jean Nathan once said, “Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness.” I think that we need loveliness in the world and we need art and music to subdue and calm us after our hard days and hard nights of living in this world. Life can be very difficult. Without art and music and God, we would have nothing. Not necessarily in that order either.
Why is art important?
Art is an expression of freedom. What would our lives be like if we weren’t free to express ourselves?
What other creative outlet would you explore if you couldn’t make visual art?
I would sing. Lol! I have a terrible voice and I have stage fright, so that wouldn’t work. I would probably refurbish antique jewelry or create my own jewelry fashioned from the Victorian and the Art Deco era. As I said, I am an antique estate jewelry junkie.
Is your significant other /best friend creative?
No. My husband, Patrick Chavez, is an attorney who practices complex litigation for the Law firm of Williams Venker & Sanders. He is totally left brained and he is a techno geek. That is not a bad thing either for the computer illiterate like me. He is totally into electronics and technology, but he is my best friend and the greatest husband and stepfather for my children that I could ever wish for. We balance each other out nicely.
What is the best museum/ art gallery/ art exhibit you have ever been to?
Now my partiality will show. St. Louis Art Museum, Gateway Gallery (of course!), and Gateway Gallery’s art exhibits. Gateway Gallery is constantly changing out the art to make a totally difference experience each time and the artists of the gallery are award-winning artists from Missouri, which is the best part of it. We are all locally based.
Why have you chosen the subject matter you have chosen?
I am drawn to photography because it is what I enjoy the most. Nature is what I love because I am always in awe of its beauty and always discovering something new even in my own backyard.
What is the most rewarding part of being an artist?
I guess what is most rewarding for me is developing courage. In order to be an artist, you have to inject your personality and your soul into your work. That takes courage because you have to go out on a limb and not worry about what others think of you. Artists are very courageous people. I have always been a bit cowardly, so what’s rewarding to me is the boldness and the courage I have developed from stepping out onto a limb. I enjoy the appreciation I have received for my work by people who like it and encourage me with their compliments.
What would someone say is odd about you?
Just about everything. Lol! We are all odd in some way, aren’t we? I work for the Prayer Team and C/2, the artist Creative Team at The Crossing Church. Since I have been on the Prayer Team, I have gotten hundreds of prayer requests from people I don’t even know. Some make me cry and I hold them in my heart each day even though I don’t know the people I pray for. We have had some miracles at our church with our prayers and I am happy I have the opportunity to pray for others I don’t know.
The other odd thing most of my customers don’t know about my art is that I have a whole body of art that is centered around Christianity and Jesus. I provide art to The Crossing for most art exhibitions they have. I have one photo of Jesus crucified on the cross that people stand in front of and cry, it touches them so.
What do you want people to know about you?
People should know that I am constantly changing my style of photography. Every day it changes. While they may like one body of work one year that I have created, next year’s body of art may be totally different. I can’t help it. I change my mind and my style like I change my clothes.
Do you have pets? Tell about them.
Yes. I have a demon-possessed Dachshund who is 98 years old in human years named Nomi. She was named after a stripper when I got her so I decided not to change her. She can also be an angel when I pay attention to her 24 hours a day, but she is very vindictive. On a bad day, she will get into every trash can in the house and drag the trash all over to show me I haven’t paid enough attention to her. She also talks to me by grunting at me incessantly at exactly 7:30 every morning to let me know she’s hungry and that I better get up and feed her or else. She grunts at me while I am taking photos and wants me to pay attention to her. My husband has had to restrain me on several occasions from feeding her to the coyotes by the lake behind our house. Lol! I still love her, though.
Describe your perfect day.
Really? Okay. A perfect day would be breakfast in bed in a luxury suite in Italy and then a massage. After a massage, a day of sightseeing in Venice and lots of shopping with as much money as I would like to spend on whatever I wanted. I would also like to see the Vatican and visit all the local spots to get lots of great photos of the people and the architecture in Italy. Lastly, dinner in an outdoor restaurant in Positano, Italy at sunset with all of the colorful buildings overlooking the coastline with a fabulous bottle of great wine. Now that’s a perfect day.
If you could own any work of art in the world, what would it be and why?
I would own the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Her expression is so comical. I just wish I knew what she had up her sleeve when she was being painted. Little did she know she would become so famous. Maybe that’s why she was smiling.
You can find Sandy online at:
Sheldon Johnson Painting
Meg Matson Painting
Michael Anderson Painting
Daniel Fishback Painting
