Marie Sand

Through my art, I encourage sensitive people to connect with their emotions. I use nature, and more specifically horses, to interpret what people feel and translate their sensitivity into drawing or painting.

Hypersensitive and raised with social conventions that discouraged the expression of emotions, I first attempted to adapt to the external world by denying my emotions until “I was out of my feeling”. At age 25, I was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease that turned my life upside down. I started to paint again. I connected with nature through my work with the World Wildlife Fund. I was very impressed to meet with communities who live everyday in an hostile nature like in Namibia. It gave me the courage to face my sensitivity.

I fell in love with horses when I was eight. When I started to draw again, I realized the vital role they played for me.  Hypersensitive creatures by nature, horses were my lifeline because they were speaking the language of emotions. When I became an environmentalist, I had similar emotional experiences with nature. Horses and nature mirror our emotions.

My work is primarily on commission to create a unique Emotion Portrait™ that deepens the unspoken connection of humans with horses and nature. It begins with an interview in which the patrons share their emotions with me. Their perceptions and feelings are the raw materials of what will become their art.

Everything I know about art I’ve learned from horses.

https://www.mariesand.com/about/