Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandra Langston.
Sandra, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Austin, graduated from UT in 1980, did some graduate school in California. My life really changed dramatically when, thanks to my father, who was professor of vertebrate paleontology at UT, I found a job with the Classics Department which took me to the far south of Italy in 1982. The digs, headed by Professor Joseph C Carter, were conducted each summer in a part of Italy that was rarely visited by tourists at that time. I found my niche doing reconstructions and illustrations of artifacts from Magna Graecia which, in circa 1600 BCE, occupied much of the south of Italy. I worked with the ever-changing team for about ten years.
Almost immediately upon arrival I met my future husband. We started our family, which now includes two grown sons and a conga line of dogs. I travel from Austin to Italy and back a few times each year. Our boys live in Austin now, and we have all of our Italian relatives in Bernalda, and they are very dear to us. All of us love both places. We do our best to overlap sometimes!
It is crucial to my story that a student of my father, whom I already knew, was also working on the dig. His life was as a lawyer in Austin, but a few years ago he and his partner moved away from Austin to Lampasas. Boyce (Cabaniss) pushed for me to look at buildings for rent in town where I could open up a gallery. And so it was, with their enormous help, that the Langston Gallery opened up in 2019, It has been very rewarding having a place to show whatever I want, whenever I want. Thank you guys!
However, not many people from Austin know about the gallery. People come through, visiting or on weekend jaunts, and never fail to be pleasantly surprised. It is gratifying! I just wish more people knew that Lampasas has a rich history and is an interesting place to spend a day, with places to eat, museums, historical buildings and live music.
After my kids were born, and were attending schools in Italy and summer camp in Texas, I rediscovered my love for painting. Rediscovered ceramics, too, and pencil, pastel, and constructions. I continued to work and show at various galleries in the Southwest, but now I have my own showplace. I have concentrated on continuing to represent “my” area of Italy as well as Texas themes. But I have a sense of humor, and my biggest gratification is doing narratives with people in situations and juxtapositions that require a little interpretation. I have fun, and blessed are those who take the time to study them.
We have dogs, chickens, wheat fields, and produce our own olive oil. Its a rural life that hasn’t changed too much even with the arrival of the internet and Amazon. I remember having to make a twenty minute car trip to go to the one public telephone in town that could handle international calls! I have a blog which goes into detail about what living in Lucania (near Matera, the World Heritage site) has been like. We speak Italian, but mostly the local dialect, which is quite different from textbook Italian. I would say not many Italians can follow it very well, and the locals are very proud of it, and rightly so. I so hope these local spoken languages can win the fight with the giant blender of the digital age.
Favorite pastimes are walking the fields hunting for lithics (there are so many of them, Neanderthal to bronze age) and riding my bicycle as far as I can up into the hills. At dusk, when the wild boar and wolves come out, my lovely husband drives out to bring me home. Austin is also quite nice for cycling, but nothing beats riding for hours and never encountering another soul. And the scenery! It almost inspires a painting…
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t remember struggles, if I had them. I am a “no regrets” person.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m another soul swimming in the river with everybody else. Always loved drawing, painting, creative problem-solving and verbal play, and I was pretty good at it from an early age. When I was six, I participated in an art competition in the Brownies (remember those miniature girl scouts?) This was about 1964. They kicked me out of the competition and humiliated my poor mother, and in so doing lit a fire under me for life! They did not believe I had done the work.
I am proud of my ability, when speaking, to fool Italians into thinking I am native, and I am proud of all the work my husband and I have done to create a paradise on our acreage. Hand-planting 1200 trees is no small feat! I am proud to have birthed and raised my two sons in Basilicata, and I am thankful that they enjoy flying. I am proud to have participated in excavations of over 400 Greek tombs, and so glad I got the chance to do cranial-facial reconstructions of some of the skeletons.
I was not so interested in landscape until after my kids grew a bit and I had breathing room, and I noticed my daily surroundings in Lucania were breathtaking and inspiring. I continue to do my narratives, people fighting or flirting or lost in fields or participating in visual puns. And ceramics, I am still learning that there is magic to be found in clay. When I do my work I am either trying to have a conversation with imaginary people or hoping to conjure up some scenery that I sorely miss. And music is my inseparable companion, always.
I have been so well-received in the town of Lampasas, which is full of small town personalities and is such a relaxing change from Austin’s intensity. No doubt I will end up here eventually. Visitors to my gallery in Lampasas appreciate that I do all kinds of different things. My favorite compliment was given to me by a little boy who wrote me a note, saying “I think you are awesome!” How great is that! And so it is my joy to be irremediably inconsistent. What could be more fun?
The Langston Gallery, 515 East Third Street, on the Courthouse Square in Lampasas. Next to Moonie’s Hemporium!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Am I a lucky person? Certainly I chose my parents carefully, and they set me on my (generally) happy path. I am glad to have traveled so much, and to have split my life in two in so many ways. I don’t think circumstances can determine our “luckiness” so much as our attitude. Most of us are lucky, or in any case, a quick re-frame of our thinking will make us so. Its called optimism, and it is crucial to a well-lived life. Tomorrow is another daily gift!
Pricing:
- Paintings range from $200-$4000 depending on the size
- Ceramics from $35-$900.
- Prints available also.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mydoublelifeinitaly.wordpress.com
- Facebook: Langston Gallery Lampasas
- Other: https://sandralangston.com
Image Credits
Gallery and work taken by the artist/owner.
