Westport's sand and story man

Apr 12, 2012

Photo: a sand tiger by The Sandman, Ken Rose

On March 31, Ken Rose, a.k.a. “The Sandman”, entertained a group of interested listeners at the Wordsmith in Westport as part of an artists' talk series, "Breakfast with the Arts", presented by Artemisia Gallery and Wordsmith.

Ken, who for years created and sold one of a kind original art works made with colored sand, spoke about his life, both as an art maker and a story teller. “Art and creativity were really my saviors,” he began, “and were what I turned to when times got difficult for me at certain points in my life.”

It was after working as a respiratory therapist for children in Ohio and after seeing some very traumatic cases that Ken felt the need to create. He began his forays into art, first by making candles, then plaster sculptures and finally he became a very successful maker of glass-encased sand pictures.

It was Ken's mother who started him on sand, the medium that would bring him success. When working in a gift shop she noticed that some very simple sand creations were “flying off the shelves". Ken heeded her advice, explored the medium, and quickly developed a few simple items. Armed with some sample pieces, on his first day selling his ideas door to door he got an order for four dozen. The rest, as they say, is history.

From those first simple objects he began experimenting and creating more intricate pictures. “I tried to make an image of a camel and when that worked, that was when the proverbial light bulb went off and I realized that I could make any image that I wanted to.” Shortly after that Ken began setting up booths in shopping malls where he created and sold his art. He eventually opened The Sandman store in Westport where he has sold thousands of pieces, including one to former US president, George Bush senior.

Ken's current Westport store is called Lake Effects, and though he is no longer a maker himself, he sells other people's creations at the store. Ken said that the lack of angst in his life has lessened his need to create art but he recalled with fondness the feeling that came with creating. “When you are creating something you can become so focused and your mind so pin-pointed that the whole world could be exploding around you and yet you remain focused on your task of getting that single grain of sand into just the right spot.”

Ken still likes to create but in a more ephemeral way these days, as a story teller, which he said he came by honestly. As the youngest member of a large extended family, who all shared an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, he was “constantly surrounded by a mélange of people, their lives and influences” and became a natural storyteller. He said that that role would later become his function and calling card.

After leaving university Ken went to the Kent State campus during the infamous Kent State protests of the 1960s, and it was there he realized the power of words. Ken recalled that at one protest, “The student president at that time was telling people to disband. I got up on the stage and told people that this was just a ploy to disband the group and that we instead should stay together. I spoke so passionately that people got really riled up and the next thing I heard was glass breaking. My speech had created such a riot that I realized the power of talk.”

Ken concluded his Westport gathering with two stories, one inspired from a place of angst - in this case the angst caused by lack of cash flow and the terrific need to see a dentist. The main character, Colby who is broke, visits a dentist who Colby hopes will agree to cure him in exchange for payment by a story. The second story was inspired by one that a friend had told him; it told of a youngster who witnessed an unfortunate incident involving a cold metal pole, a tongue, a cup of hot chocolate and the consequences of a not very well thought out plan. Ken's delivery was warm, articulate, engaging and humorous, and he explains, “To make a story your own you have to change it so that it's familiar to you so that when you tell it, it's truthful.”

Ken Rose still creates art, but now instead of colored sand he uses words as his medium and the results are equally effective. For more information about the Breakfast with the Arts series at Wordsmith call 613-273-3222 or Artemisia Gallery at 613-273-8775.