My adventure into art began during the late 1950's, while I was working in Ottawa as a draughtsman for the Department of National Defense. During my lunch hour, I became a frequent visitor at the Lorne Building that then housed the National Gallery of Canada. This is where I first saw the paintings of Lawren Harris.

  When I first viewed his Arctic paintings I could feel a chill in the room, I decided then and there that there was much more to painting than just creating pretty pictures.

  During this period, I often frequented several coffeehouses in Ottawa, listening to the folk singers and meeting other art conscious people, such as Barry Lord whom I shared an apartment with. Our rooms seemed to have a constant flow of artists and musicians.

  I began oil painting.

  I quit my job in Ottawa and moved to what was soon to become the fashionable Yorkville area in Toronto. For a short time I stayed with friends Don and Sandra Arioli, going to plays, museums and painting.

  Often I would hitchhike around the country searching for a purpose. It was during this period, I met my wife. I was picking fruit in Niagara to get a little money before moving on and Rita was working in the adjoining canning factory . She was curious about the nomadic lifestyle I was living at the time and asked to travel with me for a while, but she did not like my name and decided to call me Sandy. Fifty three years later we are still traveling the road of life together.

  Several artists sharing an apartment seemed a good way to survive. So, Malcolm Batty, Howie Fryer, Davia, Rita, Anne and I shared the lower half of a house at Lowther and Huron Streets in the annex near the Yorkville scene.

  My success in painting was slight. To earn enough money to live and keep on painting, I began carving objects out of wood, and selling them to the tourists that frequented the coffeehouses.

  Malcolm convinced me that I was a better carver then a painter and encouraged me to carve larger pieces, so I turned back to carving.

  I do not think of us in this period as being "starving artists", I remember times when if one of our circle of artists sold a piece, it meant we all ate.

  We were having too much fun, enjoying life, to think about starving, there was always a job somewhere and one could always make a bit of money somehow. Even today those jobs are still around, but they do not pay as much as most people expect.

  Because of my previous experiences and knowledge of geology, I feel there was a natural progression to stone.

  My discovery of the books and sculpture of Malvina Hoffman completely changed my vision of carving. " She taught me to see the life force in the stone that determines the direction that the stone allows itself to be formed. I must respect and admire the stone, working with it to develop its inner beauty. I try to bring out the feeling and motion of the sculpture within the stone. In my mind I see stone eagles suspended in air despite the laws of physics."

  Hard work and long hours are what kept my sculpture alive. A usual day was divided into eight hours sleeping, eight working and eight carving. There were several times I was tempted to quit, but friends and other artists like Joan Howatson inspired me to continue, until sculpture became my full-time profession.

  There is a point where everything comes together in your head and with your hands. There is no way of telling when you get to that point - it just clicks. Yesterday no one liked what you were doing, and today it is highly valued and accepted.

  I am very critical of my own work, even after Forty five years as a professional sculptor. My wife, Rita told me that I am an excellent sculptor, but I have no taste.

  Although Sandy's studio is in the wilds of North Kawartha, Ontario, Canada, I feel that the world is at my fingertips. Over the past forty five years, my work has traveled to almost every country in the world.

Sandy’s work is in collections around the world, including that of Prince Phillip. In honour of the Princess Anne Equestrian Meet, Sandy was commissioned by Murray Koffler to carve the crest of “Jokers Hill” farms, where the meet was to be held. Prince Philip opened the meet and was presented with the carving.

For the the 1988 Winter Olympics, Sports Canada purchased several sculptures for presentations.

Sandy was commissioned to create the awards for the 1988 and 1989 Winter National Indoor Games in Ottawa.
In 1990 he was commissioned to create the presentation pieces for the I.I.H.F. Women's World Ice Hockey Championship held in Ottawa.

In past years, he has produced pieces for Sir Sanford Fleming College, the Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Synchronized Swimming Team and many other organizations.

  Sandy taught sculpture at the Haliburton School of Fine Arts for nineteen years. Many of the techniques I have acquired by trial and error and I feel I should pass the knowledge along.

 In 2004 Sandy begin giving five day workshops at the William Holland School of Lapidary in Young Harris, Georgia. Elsewhere on this site you can see the work my students have finished during these courses.

 In 2011 Sandy was invited to participate in the INTERNATIONAL OPEN AIR ART FAIR 2011 YOKOHAMA, Japan.

 In 2016 Sandy was invited to participate in the "L'Enfance de l'art" in Esclottes, Aquitaine - Lot-et-Garonne, France.

  "Each piece I make is a statement. I feel I am leaving behind little pieces of myself and how I look at life, embedded in the sculpture." he says, his animated voice suddenly becoming serious. "You have to learn to work with the stone, if you try to force it into something it doesn't want to be, it will break. You become one with the sculpture, and you can feel that it is right."