While creating wildlife and landscape paintings, my intent is to capture on canvas the spiritual and emotional moment that connects me to an animal or place and infuse that feeling into you so it becomes your spiritual or emotional moment.

Nature is my truth, my naked self. My soul is a reflection of every moment that I am of nature.
My paintings are the many appearances of my soul. As I have moods, my soul has shapes--colors, forms. These shapes shift reflecting what is around me.

In nature I am evolved. In the city I am evolving. In the city, the space between me and other manifestations is chaos. It's like being in a facade. You don't know for certain what is real or true. In nature, the space between me and other manifestations has purpose. It's meaningful. It's direct. It's absolute.

So, when I create a painting, I am inviting you to my truth and as you cross over from the chaos you will feel a shift. It's a shift in your soul. Your truth is speaking to you...

Media: Acrylic, ink, pencil, watercolor, digital, oil, pastel, multi-surfaces--canvas and paper mostly. Photography is a secondary interest.

I also provide Graphic Design and Production services with my own company up until 2002, I also trained graphic artists in digital production skills on a corporate level on the East Coast (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXpress, Macromedia Director) in the '90s.

Related education includes a degree in Commercial Art with additional class credits in computer graphic design and the fine arts.

Sandy Duvall Chestnutt, Artist

Awards

• November 2004 Call to Arts Expo! North Hollywood CA
  First Place Ribbon in the "Freedom and Adventure" category
  Enlightenment, 18X24
• November 2004 Call to Arts Expo! North Hollywood CA
  Third Place Ribbon in the "Spirit and Creative Force" category
  Time of Completion, 18X24
• February 2004 Call to Arts Expo! Pasadena CA
  Finalist:
  Always Sharing, 14X11
  Bear's Catch, 30X18
• April 2003 Call to Arts Expo! Northridge CA
  Visual Arts Award for "Aesthetics and Harmony"
  Nap Time, 24 X 18,
• August 2003 Call to Arts Expo! Fullerton CA
  First Place Ribbon in the "Whimsical and Fun" category
  Dear Mom, 24 X18

Memberships/Organizations Of Interest

• Pasadena Arts Council
• Eaton Canyon Nature Center
• Artists Helping Artists (artistshelpingartists.org)
• Taos Land Trust (taoslandtrust.org)
• Back From the Brink Endangered Species (backfromthebrink.org)
• Environmental Defense (environmentaldefense.org)
• Audubon Society (www.audubon.org)
• The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org)
• Smithsonian American Indian Museum
• Alaska Conservation Foundation (www.akcf.org)
• Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org)
• National Parks Conservation Association (www.npca.org)
• Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org)
• National Wildlife Federation (www.nwf.org)