Sandi Ludescher

Sandy J Ludescher Artist Statement: I am a contemporary New Mexican regional painter. My life and paintings are about celebration. I focus on memorializing the faces and struggles of our ordinary, everyday people. Whether I am painting, drawing or making prints, my creative explorations have to do with color and composition rather than abstracting forms. I use colors in a complex, expressionistic way, usually work large and, mostly, in series. Compositions run off the edges, indicating that the story or scene lives on past the confines of the canvas. I use light in a dramatic way and rich, intense color to evoke strong emotions, reactions, and feelings. My paintings have been compared to Jenny Saville, Phillip Pearlstein, Lucien Freud and James Ensor. My work wants to be made, needs to be made and chose me to birth them. For this, I am grateful.

Sandi J Ludescher is a contemporary New Mexican regionalist painter. Her life and work is about celebration. Her work celebrates the distinctness and sometimes quirkiness of people. Her focus is figurative. She works largely in oil or watercolor and usually in series. She draws or etches almost every day with charcoal, graphite, and ink. She graduated with a BFA from the University of New Mexico in 2006 and has also worked as a professional musician and award-winning journalist, while still painting. She was born near Chicago but raised in southern California and moved as a young adult to the Pacific Northwest. In 1998, she moved to New Mexico for a journalist job and to pursue painting. Her journalism came to an abrupt halt shortly after September 11, 2001, allowing her to focus on music, art and finishing her university studies. Even though her inspiration comes from the Land of Enchantment, her work resonates with people everywhere. While much of her work focused on her Dia de los Muertos series, the pandemic gave her additional studio time that allowed a return to her earlier interests in social commentary. Exhibition credits include invitational shows, including Farmington (NM) Museum and “Voices Against Racism,” Canada, as well as seven solo shows and many awards, including two of her Dia de Los Muertos series. Two from this series were purchased by the State of New Mexico for the Permanent Collection. Her artwork has been collected globally, as well.

2-D, Painting (all materials), Printmaking/Lithography