Artist: Sandra Manzi
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 24'' x 30''

Bidding on this artwork will take place at the Live Auction event, Friday, April 10. Tickets available at the link at dvsa.ca. Absentee bids can also be placed in advance – request a form at the school office or email bid@dvsa.ca.

About This Piece
The stories in my work usually develop out of a moment I’ve experienced in my life. The inspiration for my painting titled Smell the Roses, came to me during a summer family get together at my parents' house. My mother was proudly showing us her roses and telling us how they smelled so good. My teenage niece was there as well, but she was kind of a little lost in her own thoughts. I wanted to incorporate her dreamy look with my mother's roses as a way of bringing two generations across time together. And because I couldn’t forget how adamant my mother was about the smell of the roses, I also wanted to highlight our senses – smell and sight – through the title.

Biography
Sandra Manzi is a painter from Toronto, currently residing in Hamilton. She is a graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCADU) where she received her diploma in Fine Arts/ Experimental Arts and received a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. Sandra is represented by several galleries in and around Toronto, Oakville and Hamilton, as well as in San Francisco. She is a recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council, and has been a finalist for the Boynes Artist Award three times. Her paintings can be found in private collections throughout Canada, Europe, and the United States. Dedicating herself to paintings which continue to explore the history of realism in art, she bridges the tactile qualities of painting with the aesthetics of photography. Blending traditional and contemporary aesthetics, she merges classic techniques with new technologies. Her subject matter is often an extension of the genres from the canon of art history – florals, the human figure, portraits, still life paintings and landscapes; and will often layer semi-transparent images to evoke the ephemeral nature of our existence. A common thread in all her work is light and her own everyday observations of a fleeting moment.