.png)
ARTIST STATEMENT
This is not how I thought I'd turn out...
I went to med school and trained to be a surgeon, all sharp angles and left brain. In order to be the best doctor I could, I had to board up the playful and vulnerable parts of myself and put them on a shelf for many years. After all, there's no daydreaming in the operating room!
​
Ever since I retired, I have tried to get back to my true self through art. Now I paint to uncover the layers within me.
Color, line, shape, and texture represent the nuances that exist within all of us - the hard and the soft, bold and fearful, the serious and the playful. I love the interplay between the veiled and the opaque, symbolic of what we choose to show to others versus what we hide.
​
My current body of work begins with broad washes of transparent paints and inks. I then draw into the color fields with loose sketches using various mark making tools-graphite, pastels, charcoal. Many layers of paint are applied, becoming progressively more opaque, towards impasto. Forms begin to appear, sometimes they are floral components, sometimes they are a reaction to the events of the day, usually they are influenced by the music I am listening to.
BIO
Sandy Palasti is a contemporary abstract artist who lives in Charlotte, NC. Born in New Jersey, Sandy had a love for animals and science and yearned to be a veterinarian. Human medicine won her over and she decided to pursue a career in surgery. After a fellowship at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, she was recruited as the first Pediatric ENT surgeon in Charlotte where she cared for thousands of children and their parents. She was awarded Top Doctor in Charlotte multiple times.
​
When she was 45 years old, Sandy began a journey of self discovery by exploring her creative side, a part that she had neglected during her many years in medicine. She has since been a writer, a musician, and a ceramicist, finally finding her truest expression in creating abstract paintings.
Sandy's main body of work employs layered acrylics, inks, graphite, pastels, and oils to explore the duality of personality that exists within all of us. In her series of paintings of unconventional flowers, Sandy explores the tension of being female in a field where emotions were downplayed and strength was power.
​
Recently, Sandy has experimented with collage in creating graphic pieces that are reminiscent of the '70's. Pages from vintage magazines, old photographs, and letters form the base layers. She likes working with house paints on collage as it evokes the feel of vintage walls that have been posted over for years.
​
Though relatively new to the art world, Sandy has been juried into several shows, receiving one of ten "Best of Show" at The Other Art Fair/Dallas. She lives with her husband and dogs in Charlotte, though never far from her daughter in Austin, TX.
