Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2006 - (Page 69) Lafayette. Then in 1984 he moved to New Orleans where he began a dual career as an engineer and artist. Finally, in 1992 he made the choice between his right brain/left brain pursuits to become a full-time artist. “My friends at Schlumberger didn’t understand,” he says. “I had enough money saved up from my job in engineering. I enjoyed it but I loved painting. Even on my time off I’d paint. I discovered landscapes when I came to New Orleans by spending more time off. Until that time, I had a dreary academic style. At some point I saw a Fauvist painting. I didn’t like it much but it looked like the artist had fun painting it. That’s when I changed from doing multi-sitting paintings in the studio to these quick one sitting paintings outdoors from life.” Sandusky has always preferred working from life. It is like “dogma” to him. So many people, he says, work from photographs now and something is lost in their paintings. “The firsthand experience is infinitely richer than looking at a photograph,” he says. “Also working with live subjects makes you stronger as an artist. In this city, I’m probably the only painter who draws the hard line painting like I do working exclusively from life. I’ve lost a lot of money because of that but I don’t care. I know that working from life is the right thing to do. Marketing is secondary.” The same philosophy underscores his paintings of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans. “I didn’t think they would be marketable,” he recalled. “People said why would anyone want to buy them.” Like all his other work, whether people bought them or not was unimportant. “These are live things. They’re history and I have to paint them. It’s important not to be swayed by what sells. You must follow your heart and that’s led me to some pretty dingy places. I’ve even painted around Lakeside Mall (in nearby Jefferson Parish) in that retail hell I’m just out there painting, trying to figure order in all that retail area.” Sandusky says Hurricane Katrina has had another effect upon is life. “It blew away my sense of safe harbor and got me out there to do what I should be doing. I still teach two days a week but I’m now working on another book of art methodology and writing articles. I’m now more focused and back on my artistic course with less distractions. I’ve lost my fear, for all could be gone tomorrow. You feel vital and alive when you don’t have safety nets.” “Artistically, it was challenging to state this debris convincingly. My first attempts made it look more like popcorn or confetti. Eventually, I found that articulating one or two pieces of debris would steer the mind towards perceiving the larger abstracted textured pattern, representing the rest of the debris.” – Phil Sandusky Houses along the 17th Street Canal Spring 2006/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 69
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