Sandy Dyas Kicks It…Now Kick Her Back

Easy Ed Posted On August 3, 2012

My best and oldest (not in age, but length of time) friend in Iowa would have to be someone I’ve never met but who I’ve featured in my posts a number of times and who has had her photos grace the pages of No Depression. Paper and ink, who remembers that? Comin’ at you from Iowa City, Iowa is photographer and artist Sandy Dyas, a woman who does magic with a camera and whose portraits of the people and and landscape of the Midwest will jump out and grab you by the throat. (Disclaimer: Besides Sandy, I don’t know a soul in Iowa.)

I’ve called her style “Ameri-tography”, as I see it as the visual equivalent to the roots music that we listen to and share in words, sound and videos right here on the site. And Sandy and I met when I was writing about her friend musician Pieta Brown, and it led me to a book she published in 2007 called Down To The River; Portraits of Iowa Musicians. I say we met…which sounds funny, ’cause we actually have only communicated by email and such. A very modern friendship we have.

Last January Sandy self-published a book called my eyes are not shut through Blurb. Using the book as inspiration, she has embarked on working on the largest exhibition she’s ever done at The Anderson Gallery at Drake University in Des Moines. “Iowa has always been my home. I am connected to its landscape. This expansive exhibition will explore life in the Midwest. To date, my project has mostly been funded by me. Cornell College (where I teach part-time in the art department) has awarded me several travel grants and this has greatly helped fund the gas, food and lodging on the road. The Anderson Gallery at Drake is also contributing support with the matting and plexiglass.”

This is where you folks can help. Tonight I saw on Facebook that Sandy is looking for just a little tiny bit of help, and she is going through Kickstarter, a crowd funding website used by many musicians and creative types.

“The money will be used for printing the photographs at my professional lab in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Many of the prints will be really large, up to 30 x 40 inches in size. Dry-mounting, matting and framing the prints is the next priority. This is very expensive and I will do much of the framing myself. $1800 will cover most of the urgent expenses needed for this up-coming show. Any additional donations will help me be able to add to this exhibition by making more prints.” Take note of that last sentence please.

Two hours ago I checked and saw she hadn’t raised a nickel yet. A minute ago I looked again and she’s almost halfway to her goal. Thats the power of Kickstarter and speaks to the love people have for Sandy and her work. So…for as little as ten bucks you too can support the arts and a great artist. I’m going to play her video below, and it’s the first time I’ve actually seen her move and heard her voice.

So please meet my friend…Sandy Dyas. And CLICK HERE to give her a hand: