Sandra C. Fernández ~ Texas

Edition Printmaking books
One-of-a-kind structural bookworks

Sandra C. Fernández: "I am a printmaker and a very process oriented person, and have employed various methods of the printing and photographic medium for my art. Intaglio, Relief, serigraphy, non-silver processes are all at my disposal for the creation of multiple images. It is interesting and appealing to me that I can make many copies of one idea and thus share this image with many. And yet I am free to change the image in some way each time. It is a matrix that can be used again and again, yet each time the image can be rendered unique."

Lovuetes
By Sandra C. Fernández
Austin, Texas: Sandra C. Fernández, 2011. Edition of 10 .

4" diameter; 14 loose leaves. Etchings on handmade paper. Etched copper boards with thread and bone hinges. Thread and milagro charm closure.

Sandra C. Fernández: "Love making is a very personal, private matter; yet since the beginning of mankind it has been depicted in many public ways. Inspired by the Kamasutra, my Lovuetes are simple, delicate and playful renderings that celebrate explorations that can only come about after finding true love. Each lovuete is enclosed within a circular shape to emphasize the full connection between mind and body, to be whole in a relationship."
$300

Sandra C. Fernández: "Arriving in the US in 1987, I struggled to give meaning to a culture and language not my own. I turned to art as a refuge to deal with the pain and loneliness I felt. I left behind the country where I grew up because I feared for myself and my husband a fate met by many of my friends - torture and death. Art was a shelter for me, a resource and outlet to cope with my exile. Originally I was a photographer, now I incorporate photographs into unique pieces of soft organic sculpture that tell a layered story and communicates my personal relationship with the world. Paper dolls, photographs, lace, embroidery, weaving and basketry all come together in a synthesis of textured studies."

Nourishment Structure
By Sandra C. Fernández
Austin, Texas: Sandra C. Fernández, 1994-1995. One of a kind.

9.5 x 6.5 x 5", womb-shaped structure on 4 legs . Materials: Vandykes [also called Vandyke Browns, a photographic process that takes its name from the deep brown pigment associated with the Flemish painter Van Dyke] printed on wood, crocheted linen, coiled raffia, cinnamon powder.

Sandra C. Fernández: “This work is about me becoming a mother. It came about after I gave birth to my first child. The oval shape refers to the uterus, and the crocheted 'ball' is the placenta. It also refers to the umbilical cord that nurtures the life of the fetus inside the womb. The entire shape is symbolic of the uterus as a container. The images on the outside are my handwriting as a child (they can be anybody’s handwriting of a kid), and the image is a sonogram of my boy in my womb when he was just a fetus. This is a maternal piece, celebratory of pregnancy and childbirth.”
$1,000

Remembering mi abuelita Carlota
By Sandra C. Fernández
Austin, Texas: Sandra C. Fernández, 1995. One of a kind.

7 x 10 x 5.5" structure. Cyanotypes printed on wood. Other materials: coiled raffia, thread, found objects.

A wooden box on legs, when opened, reveals two smaller boxes. The box's exterior has almost unreadable handwritten text. The interior contains two handmade unlidded miniature boxes. The boxes are sewn at the seams for binding the sides together. The interior of the boxes have small objects resembling brightly colored toys.

Sandra C. Fernández: "The cyanotypes are of my grandmother. The text is of different things: front right, a letter from my grandfather to me (in Spanish). I added this letter to the front of her 'house' because he was the center of her life; the text on the front left is a letter I wrote when I was a child. My grandmother and grandfather played a very important role in my life as a child. They brought me up together with my mom.

"The items in the boxes relate to my grandmother as a pious woman and also as the head of the household. They are boxed in and compartmented to signify how those two things in her life had to be divided and separated. My grandfather was a socialist and an atheist, so my grandmother had to keep her beliefs to herself. Yet she was the head of the household."
$1,200