GROW

Sandi Neiman Lovitz

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Year Participated: 2006

How did showing in the exhibition impact your career as an artist?

“It gave me the confidence to continue my journey as an artist. I later taught classes at the Art Center and was so happy to be part of that artist community.”

Artist Statement

I was only five years old when I started my journey as an artist. The color of that gorgeous blue robin’s egg passed through me like a lightning bolt and opened up my passion for color. My box of crayons became my treasure chest.

That lightning bolt struck again eleven years later when I saw, in person, an abstract painting by Franz Kline at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The power and expression of that painting gave me the freedom and permission to see beyond the traditional realism I had been taught and explore and push boundaries I never realized was possible.

When I stand in front of a blank canvas I jump down that portal and like ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ experience a world of magic and strange logic full of phantasmal shapes, glowing colors, and glorious marks. They jump from my eyes into my deepest emotions and then to my brush. I enjoy watching paint move on the canvas as though it has a life of its own. My work is spontaneous in gesture and then refined or edited with my knowledge of rhythm, composition, color and space.

I paint layers of colors and rhythms that breathe life into my paintings and open up stories for the viewer’s imagination and curiosity.

Artist Biography

Sandi Neiman Lovitz graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor”s degree in Art Education and taught art in the Pittsburgh Public School for a number of years before moving to Philadelphia. Sandi continued to teach private classes and exhibit her paintings. Her passion for art led into various businesses that all involved the creative process. “Plastic Fantastics” was started with a friend, where they designed and manufactured acrylic functional art pieces. This, combined with her desire to keep doing art to make a living resulted in her decision to learn sign painting as a trade. She did free style hand lettering on windows, tractor trailers, paper, and wood for approximately 10 years.

Following that she developed a line of hand painted clothing that was sold throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area, did murals in personal and commercial areas and also created a line of hand-painted furniture which was represented by several galleries in the area. During this whole time Sandi continued to exhibit her paintings in various shows and and was part of the Merrill Collection, a gallery in West Chester, Pa.

She was President of the Tri-State Pennsylvania Artists Equity for two years and was on the board of DaVinci Art Alliance, a non-profit art organization founded in 1931, which is based in South Philadelphia. She is also involved in ARTsisters, a group of women who are professional visual artists that not only support each other, but also reach out to women and children in the community. Sandi now paints full-time in her studio and teaches at Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pa.