I was really amazed when I first came across these items and their back story only makes them more intriguing to me. They are bottles of sand where different colored grains of sand are manipulated, without use of glues or any bonding agents, to create highly detailed images and patterns. These were created by Andrew Clemens who lived in Iowa and died in 1894 at the age of 37.
Clemens was stricken at an early age with encephalitis which left him deaf and practically mute. He encountered the art of sandpainting at about age 13 and began to search the local terrain for different colors of sand which he incorporated into his craft. With practice he moved from simple layers and geometric patterns into more and more intricate patterns, even replicating photographs with ornate shading.
As I noted above, Clemens used no glues in his painting, using only the pressure of the surrounding grains of sand to keep his images in place. To manipulate the sand he created his own tools from pieces of hickory and fish hooks. It’s a classic case of an artist finding a medium that fits the way his mind operates.
When finished, Clemens would pack the jar tightly and seal it. As his abilities grew so did his notoriety. His jars soon became fairly popular with orders coming in from around Iowa and the rest of the country. Small jars sold for a dollar or two and larger ones sold for 6 or 8. Today, the larger, intricate ones like those at the top of the page would sell for $50-100,000 according to experts. That is, if they came up for sale. There are not too many left. Not only because of the short life of Clemens. His work had an ephemeral quality. A slip of the hand and a beautiful work of art becomes a pile of sand and glass, never to be put back together.
The more I see of these pieces from Clemens, the more amzed I am at his ability to break down an image and render it grain by grain, almost as though each grain were an individual pixel in a modern digital image. He truly found a medium that meshed with his vision and abilities and thankfully much of his work still survives in collections for us to see.
[…] The Sand Art of Andrew Clemens By redtreetimes | […]
Remarkable.
A 2003 appraisal video from Antiques Roadshow can be viewed here and the text of a 1945 Iowa Historical Society article can be found here.
I’m reminded of Tibetan sand mandalas which, after weeks of painstaking construction, are ceremoniously destroyed.
Yes, it does remind one of the Tibetan mandalas. Clemens used to do demonstrations where he would make sand paintings in small bottles then smash them to show that they were indeed nothing more than sand.
I don’t know whether I’m more astonished by Clemens’ work or by the fact that I’ve never heard of him.
When I was a kid in Iowa – through my college years, actually – a fall ritual was a drive up the Great River Road to McGregor and Prairie du Chien to see the foliage. Sometimes we’d go farther north, but we often stayed in McGregor, where Clemens lived.
You’d think the Chamber of Commerce might have made more of him – or perhaps we simply weren’t paying attention.
I’ve seen sand painting, of course. But this? Unbelievable.
That is amazing that McGregor wouldn’t make him known. But then again, even though it is remarkable and beautiful, it isn’t exactly a huge headline grab. Glad you liked it though!
there are six sand bottles by clemens at the mcgregor museum, and one at the mcgregor library, where i work. i enjoyed your article; wonderful perspective.
Go glad you enjoyed the article. I find his work intriguing and am glad that it has been preserved.
I love Clemens work. Do you by chance have a picture of the bottle that’s at the library? Or can you describe what’s on it?
Hello — Here is the Andrew Clemens’ bottle that is on display at the McGregor Public Library.
I have been researching Clemens for many years. He had an interesting life as a deaf man in a small river town who wanted to make something of his life.
People in McGregor know about Andrew Clemens. It isn’t a matter of forgetting about him, or not promoting him, it is that someone important has to make him known… Wes Cowan has done a lot for that. When we promote Andrew Clemens in McGregor, our influence doesn’t reach very far. His life and work has been beloved here.
Thank you for noticing Clemens work and posting about it!
Michelle Pettit Library Director McGregor Public Library 334 Main Street McGregor, Iowa 52157 http://www.mcgregor.lib.ia.us
If you want, send it to me at maggieendres@hotmail.com Thank you so much.
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:08:25 +0000 To: maggieendres@hotmail.com
Although I have a photograph of the bottle here, I don’t know how to post a photograph in a reply. … The bottle on display at the McGregor Public Library is of a steamboat on one side, and a floral wreath with the date on the other side. Let me know how to send you the picture, and I’ll send it your way: mplib@mchsi.com