Paintings on 1935 Dictionary for Boys and Girls

Sandra Martinez 2021

First Edition of 50 Archival Pigment Prints

Sandra's father gifted her the first book she painted on. He thought it was a valuable antique, she discovered it was not and used it as a journal while caring for him expanding her long relationship to books. When he passed away, loads of books came to Sandra. Engineering manuals, dictionaries, engine design, repair, and encyclopedias. All of which are laden with the power of pre-internet study... And Dad.

"Painting on old book pages frees me from the potential blocks surrounding precious materials. The books themselves are past their prime in the antique market- when they come to me I give them another life. I handle fragile fragments of someone else's work, and trying and shadow boxes, they're laden with paint, dirt, and layers of meaning... They take another bow. Whatever remains readable is a nod to chance, everyone's collaborator"

Sandra Martinez symbolist works on paper are intuitive and meditative. Taking inspiration from surrealists, her process begins with loose contour drawings that can be read as abstract, human, plant, and shelter forms.

Gestural washes with a minimal pallet build up in the work. Some areas are rubbed, erased, cut, collage, or related with dirt. The resulting services range from sparse to thick. Sometimes they develop into a weaving design, sometimes not.

Her work on her father's books continues, along with her use of Hogarth monograph pages, Dante's inferno, German periodicals and whatever else happens to peers a gift or by chance as in tyvek, would she paints on for her larger works.

Torrent is the first work on the Dictionary for Boys and Girls.

13 x 9.5”

Packed in mylar and foamcore backed