Creating with Katherine Sandoz Reception
6 p.m. Friday, June 12
SixTwelve | Oklahoma City
There’s much more going on at the corner of 29th and Lee than first meets the eye. Walking up the steps to the 1930s-era white stucco building, you might spot a few people tending to the garden, or a couple kids chasing each other through the grass. But walk inside and you’ve clearly entered someplace special. Creativity flows everywhere you turn: Hand-thrown pots line a table on the balcony, orbed lights dangle haphazardly from the tall ceiling, and painted and half-empty canvases are strewn through various spaces, waiting patiently for their makers to return.
I follow local artist Denise Duong up the stairs. Duong is a woman on a mission, as she hurriedly returns to her workspace in the upper reaches of the house. I’m led into the central hub of SixTwelve; a thriving community art space in the heart of the Paseo District. It’s a labor of love by Amy Young and James Varnum, two Oklahoma natives with a passion for collaboration and connection amongst artistic minds.
An interior shot of the SixTwelve house
Currently, talk of SixTwelve’s new artist-in-residency exchange program buzzes through the air. The purpose of the program is simple: Two artists from different parts of the country will collaborate and share the results with their communities.
Duong recently returned from Savannah, where she spent time working with and learning from Katherine Sandoz, an artist and collaborative designer in the area. Now Sandoz is here in Oklahoma City, sharing her talents with the people of Paseo.
Young hand-picked Sandoz and Duong for the inaugural exchange. However, a special committee will select the other residents via application.
“My thought was that we need more opportunities for artists,” Young explained. “Not just to show their work, not just to create their work, but also to connect with the community. Education is everything. It’s one of those things where if you have a good teacher and a good experience, then you can see the growth within yourself.”
Everything meshes — the skills, the people, the ideals — and the positivity effortlessly multiplies exponentially. Though the program currently centers on the visual arts, Young said culinary arts, performance arts, music, film, and sustainability will be integrated in the future.
SixTwelve just opened in February, so right now it’s a blank slate with endless possibilities. Whenever new residents move in, so do fresh furnishings — all of which are either locally made or previously owned — ready to be sold once the resident moves out. The idea of reducing and reusing whenever possible is a running theme here, not just in the workings of the building, but in the creation of the art as well.
“The idea of creativity with sustainability — donated and repurposed materials — is used throughout my work,” Sandoz said. “That’s why it was so important for me to partner [with them], because [SixTwelve’s] mission statement is in line with my own studio practice.”
Sandoz worked with kids from the TradeShare Summer Camp program last week to create flags representing their unique personalities and perspectives in order to encourage them to hone their artistic voices.
“I like the idea of being invested in making the ordinary not so ordinary, and most of my work is about that,” Sandoz said. “So I look to my surroundings — the environment, the people, the stories in the south — and I can bring that here too. To be able to pass that on to someone as young as four or as impressionable as 12, that’s pretty powerful.”
Katherine Sandoz and Emily Petree stitching the work destined for the façade of SixTwelve
This week, Sandoz and assistant Emily Petree, herself an established local artist, hand stitch a project to be revealed at a final reception tomorrow evening. Each of the panels consists of botanical shapes inspired by the flora of Oklahoma, and they’ll be hung on the building’s façade when completed, epitomizing SixTwelve’s ideals of artistry, philanthropy, and community engagement.
“Even though the residency is just two people and one connection, the ripples are pretty deep and the relationships are growing,” Sandoz said.
It’s a ripple effect that’s truly worth witnessing.
