“I did my own black and white developing and I had my own darkroom in the bathroom. I was in my early 20s, when my friends were still going out and partying. I’m like, no, I’m gonna stay home and play with my camera and I was in the bathroom developing photos and printing stuff, taking pictures and I would stay up all night doing that stuff and just being creative and they were like, I don’t understand you. I was just so past that, I wanted to stay here and do photography, and then I started doing little festivals. I would go and set my little stuff up and hang out with other artists friends and sell art, it was really a fun time. We had a little robust community there of artists. One of them was my cousin, he was a very good artist, he’s still a very good artist. And we talked about that now about remembering we did that festival down on Greenwood and blah blah blah. So, we had a lot of things going on. And it was just a good time to be an artist and to develop. And be part of that culture, great culture. They have a pretty good culture there now. We have a pretty good community here.”
“I was doing some workshops before the pandemic hit. I was having people come in and we’re doing small sculptures and doing paper mache Shay, yeah no doing stuff and the girls in there were teaching painting you know and whatnot and we were just painting and doing all kinds of fun stuff and had all these great ideas and all of a sudden, on March 16 and is closed the doors like okay this is it, how long it’s a year plus later I’m like oh my gosh, when is this going to get better. I’m so anxious to get going, you know, but it’s just hard right now because you know the health of our community is not that great.”
“I just retired a couple years ago, so it’s like, okay now I gotta do the things that make me feel great and get my creative spirit, flourish and whatnot. That’s my intention and, I’ve been in this program, with the Wichita Falls Arts Alliance and they have been really helpful with bringing your ideas together, helping them come to fruition. I had a business plan and was working through just little bits of it but they really want you to focus on that and bring that stuff to fruition, which is great. So now I’ve got this great idea about how I’m going to go ahead and get this set up as an LLC. I really would like to have a bigger place, where I can do painting off to the side and just have a gallery and focus on the sculpture side. I mean, that’s just really what I want to do and with the things that they’re doing with us and helping us, I think I can make that happen. That’s what I’m really looking forward to and excited about doing.”
-Sandi Gant