Finding Her Way Back to Art: Meet Local Artist Sandra Toensing

Sometimes the things we love don't disappear. They simply wait for us to find our way back.

If you walk through a collection of Sandra Toensing's paintings, one thing becomes apparent almost immediately.

Color.

Bright blues. Vibrant reds. Warm oranges. Brilliant flowers, landscapes, cityscapes and abstracts.

But for Sandra, color isn't simply an artistic choice.

It's personal.

Sandra grew up in a home where, as she remembers it, the walls were always white or beige. There wasn't much color around her.

So when Sandra eventually had a home of her own?

She put color everywhere.

“Color is emotional,” Sandra told us when we sat down with her recently.

And once you know a little more about Sandra's story, the color in her paintings begins to make even more sense.

The Fourth-Grade Art Teacher Who Saw Something in Her

Sandra's love of art goes all the way back to elementary school.

She remembers a fourth-grade art teacher who encouraged her and helped spark a love of creating that would stay with her.

But Sandra's life didn't follow a straight line from elementary-school art class to becoming an artist.

She married young, shortly after high school. Then came family, raising a daughter and all the responsibilities that accompany building a life.

Art was still somewhere inside her.

But painting wasn't where life took her.

And for a long time, it stayed that way.

Then Patsy Asked About a Sunflower

Fast-forward to 2018.

Sandra's good friend Patsy asked her to do something that probably seemed pretty simple at the time:

Would Sandra paint a Sunflower on a coffee table?

But Patsy changed her mind and wanted a Daisy instead.

And something happened.

Sandra describes it almost like breaking a seal.

That little daisy awakened something that had been sitting there for years.

She caught the art bug again.

And this time, she didn't put it back down.

There is an interesting connection for us at Humanity Health, too.

Years later, it was Patsy who told Sandra about our new Local Artist Spotlight and encouraged her to come see us.

The same friend who helped nudge Sandra back toward painting helped lead her through our doors.

Sometimes things really do have a way of coming full circle.

“Practice, Practice, Practice.”

Sandra doesn't have a traditional fine-art-school story.

She's primarily self-taught.

When we asked her how she learned, her answer was pretty straightforward:

“Practice, practice, practice!”

She learned by painting, experimenting and watching other artists. She especially remembers learning from artists such as Bob Ross and Jed Dorsey, and she also names Picasso and Van Gogh among artists who inspire her.

Today Sandra primarily works in acrylics, creating everything from landscapes and florals to animals, city scenes and abstracts.

She often begins with photography made available for artists to paint and then recreates the subject through her own vision.

And inevitably, Sandra's vision brings us back to...

color.

For Sandra, Color Is Emotional

Sandra doesn't use vibrant color simply because it looks good on a canvas.

Color makes her feel something.

That may explain why even when the original inspiration is subdued, Sandra can take it somewhere completely different.

One of the paintings she's especially excited about is a piece she calls “Cubism.”

It's vibrant and colorful, and Sandra says there's something about it that draws you into the painting.

What makes that particularly interesting?

The image that originally inspired it was a snowy winter scene.

Sandra saw something else.

And that's what ended up on the canvas.

Painting Is Her Happy Place

Perhaps our favorite answer from the entire conversation came when we asked Sandra a very simple question:

What does painting give you?

Her answer?

It takes her to her “Happy Place.”

And when we asked what she hopes happens when someone else stops in front of one of her paintings, her answer wasn't about technique, recognition or whether someone understands what she intended.

She hopes they experience:

Joy. Happiness. Positive emotions.

That tells you quite a bit about Sandra.

She's not just putting color on a canvas.

She's trying to pass along a little bit of what painting gives to her.

A Plainfield Artist—and Our First

Sandra has called Plainfield home for approximately 13 years.

She moved there to be closer to her daughter and grandson, while also hoping to connect with the local artist community.

So when we started building the Humanity Health Local Artist Spotlight, Sandra was exactly the kind of person we hoped this program would help us discover.

Someone local.

Someone with a story.

Someone creating original work that people in our community can actually imagine hanging in their homes.

And someone who reminds us that there doesn't have to be an expiration date on the things we love doing.

When we told Sandra we'd selected her to become Humanity Health's first Featured Local Artist, she told us she was absolutely thrilled.

We're pretty excited about it, too.

Come See Sandra's Work

Sandra's eight-week exhibit begins Monday, September 21, inside Humanity Health in Avon.

She has so many paintings that even we don't know exactly which pieces are going on the wall yet.

Sandra is bringing a larger collection to installation day, and together we'll curate the final exhibit right here in the space.

So in a way, we're going to discover the finished exhibit right along with you.

Then on Wednesday, September 30, we'll host our first Local Artist Spotlight / Meet the Artist Night, where you'll have an opportunity to meet Sandra, see her work in person and hear more of her story.

And if one of Sandra's paintings belongs on your wall, you'll be able to purchase directly from Sandra.

Humanity Health takes no commission from the artwork. One hundred percent of the artwork sale goes to the artist.

That's important to us.

Because the Local Artist Spotlight isn't about Humanity Health becoming an art gallery.

It's about using a wall we already had to give talented people in our community another place to be seen.

And we can't think of a better person to put on that wall first than the woman who, years ago, was asked by a friend to paint a sunflower on a coffee table...

…and found her way back to something she loved.

Welcome to the wall, Sandra. 🎨

Brent Mason (owner)