A Display of Paintings by Sandra June

Sandra June was born and grew up in eastern South Dakota, where wide open spaces and big skies formed her visionary sensibilities. Her exposure to visual arts began well before elementary school, as her mother’s natural instincts guided her experiences with crayons and pencils very early on. Sandra recalls being three years old, coloring on walls and adding “interest” to black-and-white family photographs; her mother was not amused.

As a student at the University of Georgia, June explored various forms of artistic expression — photography, clay, inks, colored pencils, printmaking, and paints — while earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting. In the classroom, June was struck by Mark Rothko’s work, which evoked a deeply emotional response to simple color, and Donald Judd’s minimalist structures, for their simplicity and stark beauty. She was inspired then to express her visions through paint in the abstract, which often took on a minimalistic nature.

Sandra left Georgia and its prevalent greenery, and returned briefly to South Dakota for the simple pleasure of “going home” and living where one can see wide horizons, big skies, and vast sunrises and sunsets. Her move to western Colorado was provoked by an interest in the spacious and colorful land, the bluest of skies, and the dry, mild climate.

June continues using color and large canvases to paint in the abstract. Her choice to work ever larger, her need to explore, and her creative impulses are often driven by her interest in the natural human responses to colors, shapes, lines, and the spaces that these entities occupy on her canvases.