Sandra Duran Wilson is a fourth generation artist. Her mother’s relatives come from Mexico, Spain, and Italy and their mediums were respectively painting, photography, and sculpture. She started painting at the age of five under the tutelage of her great aunt, Santa Duran, a well-known Texas landscape artist. They would travel to location and paint the old missions, houses, and landscapes around San Antonio. Sandra’s great- grandfather, Juan Duran, a photographer from Madrid, Spain and her grandfather, a ceramic artist from Mexico both influenced her work. Sandra’s early years were spent on the border of Mexico where the people, animals, landscape, drama of the religious rituals, and stories of the curanderas shaped her reality. Years later she would return many times to Mexico and South America to study the culture, traditions, and art. Her spirituality combined with her scientific studies has directed her work from realism to abstract mixed media.
Sandra’s father and his relatives were physicians and healers and they nurtured her love of science. Making her paints and paper from materials found in Nature is a direct result of this passion. Her work is much like her life in that it has many layers, textures and depth as a result of varied and juxtaposed experiences.
The mixed media pieces employ painting, printmaking, photography, and collage. They are like an archeological dig, unearthing hidden treasures from the past. Her goal is to continue exploring the connections between soul and science. She has degrees in both science and art from the University of New Mexico and she has lived in Santa Fe, NM since 1977.
The collision of dimensions is a place where science encounters art through texture, color, composition, and movement. I dream all of my work prior to creating it. The dream state is open to all possibilities where colors become frequencies weaving the tapestry of time. The work is sensually textured abstract surfaces with portions of symbols and images emerging like treasures being unearthed from an archeological dig. Creativity occurs on many levels, the dream state, the intuitive, and the analytical. I am intrigued with the possibilities science offers and equally so by the mysteries of the spirit. Science operates within defined parameters and art occurs when science encounters the dynamic flow of the spirit. My scientific research influences my analytical outlook. My travels in Mexico and South America, and my studies with shamans and healers have also shaped my perception. I have always been fascinated with alchemy, the process of transforming something common into something precious. As a result I make many of my own papers, paints, and encaustics using common elements, and employ the transformative processes of printmaking and collage. Astrophysics, quarks, superstrings, and phantom strands of DNA are inspiration for the mixed media pieces. Mathematical formulas give rise to complex, dynamic images through the dream state. I believe that art and science can inspire and influence each other. History is a part of memory; potential a part of imagination and where the two meet and merge is the essence of power.
