Artist Spotlight: Nicholas Sanders
Meet Nicholas Sanders, a ‘not-really- based- anywhere’ artist who is featured in our upcoming Figural Show. Nicholas is fueled by creativity, approaching the world with exploration and open-minded curiosity to keep learning.
1. Share a bit about your background. How did you become an artist? Who or what have been your biggest influences?
"Howdy. I came to painting through photography. I have been a commercial artist for years, working with brands and agencies where experimentation was always part of the job. Test shoots and self initiated concepts gave me space to play, to follow curiosity, and to build a visual language that felt lighthearted and optimistic. That sense of play eventually pulled me toward mixed media. Last year I started painting directly onto prints of my photographs, treating them less like finished images and more like invitations. The response surprised me in the best way and encouraged me to keep going. My biggest influence is life itself. I am endlessly curious. The more I learn about the world, people, places, and ideas, the more material I feel I have to work with."
2. What is a fun or unexpected fact about yourself that the audience may not know?
"I intentionally manufacture boredom to help myself create. In 2024 I carried a flip phone for six months because I wanted fewer inputs and more space for my thoughts to wander. These days I will still leave my phone in the glovebox when I run errands so I can be fully present while standing in line or waiting at a stoplight. I try not to fill my head with noise when silence will do just fine. It is an ongoing practice and I definitely stumble. I occasionally relapse into screen time binges. It is my great modern struggle, but the quiet always pulls me back."
3. Can you walk us through your creative process from rituals or routines to ideas to finished pieces.
"My day always starts with brewing a cup of coffee. I grind the beans myself and use a French press. While I drink it, I write a letter to God. I reflect on what happened yesterday, what I hope to do today, and ask to be guided toward being of maximum service to people and to the Earth. After that I respond to emails and take care of any client work on my plate. Once the practical things are handled, I go for a long walk. Walking is where most of my ideas show up. It gives my mind room to roam and lets connections form naturally. From there the studio work feels less like forcing something and more like listening."
4. If you could live inside one of your artworks for a day, which would you choose of the ones you will be sending?
"I would crawl inside Floatie and spend the day playing with a friend in a swimming pool in the summer. That piece holds some of my favorite memories. Warm air, cold water, laughter echoing off the concrete. It feels timeless and easy and full of joy."
5. What has been the most difficult part of becoming an artist? Based on those challenges, what is one thing you would tell your past self?
"The hardest part has been developing and committing to a true style. I genuinely believe it takes about ten years to do that. What many people call a style is often closer to a motif. A real style is something deeper. When you arrive there, it cannot be copied and people respond to it instinctively because it is unmistakably you. If I could talk to my past self, I would tell him to be patient and to trust that consistency compounds. There are no shortcuts, but there are also no other yous in the world."
6. Tell us about the pieces you're showing in our Figural Show. What inspired them?
"The four pieces in the Figural Show are large format works based on test images I created over the past year. They live at the intersection of photography and painting and carry themes I return to again and again. Nostalgia, playfulness, and joy are at the core of each piece. I think of them as quiet conversations with the viewer’s inner child. They are meant to feel familiar and comforting, like a memory you cannot quite place but instantly recognize."
7. For fun, if you could spend a month learning anything, what would it be and why?
"I am excited to say I have been accepted into an artist residency in the south of France next year, so spending a month learning French would be wonderful. That said, I am endlessly hungry to learn. I would love to dive deep into meditation, fishkeeping, Moroccan architecture and interior design, the cenotes of the Yucatan, long form fiction, poetry, desert landscaping and farming, and a whole lot more. Learning feels like another form of play to me, and play is where all my best work begins."
