Sandra is an award-winning fine art photographer and digital artist. While she is committed to experiencing art in one form or another every day, photography is her passion and provides a medium for her self-expression. She considers herself a nature photographer and has become known for her sandhill crane images with their simple elegant style. As much as she enjoys nature photography, she has been known to wander off in many creative directions, challenging those who follow her photography to explore new creative techniques and experience this ever-changing art form.
Sandra was the 2014 Festival of Cranes Artist. She has served on the organizing committees for the Annual New Mexico Photographic Arts show and InSight from 2009 - 2014. She served on the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Board as an Artist Representative for 2012-2013. Currently, Sandra serves as chairman of the jury committee for the Corrales Society of Artists and is on their Board of Directors. She has played an active role in the production of Corrales Art Studio Tour for many years.
She has won awards from ANMPAS for Best of Category 5 times. In 2013 she won the People’s Choice award at InSight of New Mexico. Sandra has received the North American Nature Photographers Association International Showcase competition award and has been published in the NANPA Expressions book. She has also been published in the New Mexico Magazine as one of their annual award winners. In 2015 Sandra had her first one woman show in the donor’s gallery at the Popejoy Performance Arts Center in Albuquerque. She currently participants in several juried arts and crafts shows though out the southwest.
In 2020, Sandra has completed a project for the Corrales Historical Society. The project included producing images of 10 designated historical properties in the Village. The images have been published in a tour guide for the Corrales Historical Society as well as becoming part of the permanent archives.
Sandra was an artist participant in the “first ever” virtual art show created and produced by Rio Grande Arts Festivals, “Art Gone Viral.” Sandra is an active instructor and mentors many individuals in photography skills and post-processing techniques. She has served as a judge for several photo competitions including the New Mexico Expo and the Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show.
Artist Statement
Free verse is a literary style used in poetry that is free from fixed forms. It does not follow regular rhyme rules but still provides artistic expression. In much the same way, Sandra Corless embraces photographic traditions but uses modern tools and techniques. She breaks many of the “rules” to achieve the images in her body of work.
Generally, her works combines multiple series of works: In the Company of Cranes, Floral Melodies, and her Naturescapes. Their common thread is Sandra’s singular vision that explores abstraction of the subject. In the Company of Cranes portrays the interactions, emotions, and tension in sandhill cranes by removing the chaos with which they are so often surrounded. Floral Melodies orchestrates flowers to re-create life’s rhythms and dramas. Naturescapes takes abstraction further as her nature subjects become a geometric study of light and shadow, line and form. All the pieces combine natural synthetic elements to examine the forms that nature repeats across all things.
