Sandra Rose Brand
Artist and Illustrator
What is the most significant aspect of your work?
Feelings. I believe that human emotions are the most valuable and vulnerable part of being alive. And I want people to feel things when they look at my art.
Being a practitioner of both digital and traditional art, what do you think about these mediums?
I do a lot of digital works, that’s the main form of art that I share with the world. And quite a bit of water colour. I am really inspired by traditional fine art due to my studies at art school, and I’ve always been in love with the look of painterly brushstrokes; they feel so real and raw. Even when I do digital works, I try to capture that organic feel.
How do you seek to connect with your audience through your work?
I think I like to explore growth because I think people are constantly growing and changing and experiencing. It’s one of the main things about being human. There’s constant change all the time. You always have to be experiencing new things and going through new things.
I also like the idea of hope. Even though there’s a lot of struggle and everyone has their own crap going on. There’s always going to be obstacles. But there’s also a lot of hope that things will get better. That things may not be the way you want them to be right now, but they are just the way that they are and that’s good in itself.
Would you like to talk us through your recent works?
Yes of course. My recent project is about the concept of change. It follows a series of little character that I’ve created, a deep sea diver who’s kind of isolated, dreamy. It’s sort of a surreal filter on life. I use quite a lot of visual metaphors, which I love as it can be interpreted in many different ways. To me, the diver symbolises the “self” in general and the thoughts and feelings that you have while you go through intense change. Growth can lonely sometimes, and you need to spend a lot of time with yourself to reflect on what’s going on and really learn from what’s happening. And with this work I would like to convey that yes it’s scary, yes it’s isolating, yes there are times where you have to be alone, but it doesn’t last forever. That you’re only going to be at the bottom of the ocean deep in your helmet for a certain amount of time but it will get better.
I’ve recently introduced a new character, little astronaut character that, to me, represents my support network and everybody out there, and just people you would go stargazing together with.