May 3 — Drawing on experiences

Doug Sandland captures the essence of his childhood

Andrew Hosford / of The Herald

After Doug Sandland’s mother died in 1985 in Sumner, it was his job to clean out the attic.

Within the old storage boxes and dusty furniture he found hundreds of photographs from his childhood.

“I wanted to do something with them but didn’t know what,” Sandland said of his discovery.

The majority of the pictures were of adventures with his sister and friends. His mother captured them playing at their home on 60th Street, just past what is now the Windmill Gardens, and sledding on the hill where Corliss Mining Company now sits.

“My mom was crazy about taking pictures,” said Dorine McCall, Sandland’s sister.

Some 20 years later, the photos are the inspiration for an artistic labor of love.

With five pieces finished and 10 more to go, he is rendering the three-inch pictures into three-foot hand drawn images.

Using only specialized pencils and erasers, he draws on the large sheets without tracing.

“Everything brings back memories,” Sandland said of the process.

A graduate of Sumner High School in 1948, his passion for art fostered from an early age. His father, a sign painter by trade, shaped Sandland’s foundation and inspired him to pursue art as more than a hobby.

“I used to watch him and was knocked out by his work,” he said.

Sandland enrolled in a Tacoma art college and by the time he earned his degree, he had taken classes at prestigious schools in Seattle and Los Angeles.

His pursuits landed him a job at the Cole and Weber advertising agency in Seattle. From there, he spent his career working as a creative and art director for his own agency in Bellevue and multiple agencies in his current hometown, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Working steadily, Sandland said he is able to finish a piece in a month now that advertising is not consuming all of his artistic time.

His schedule is still plenty full, though, as he pursues other interests.

“I am busier now than I ever was,” he said.

Recently he designed and created a number of covers for children’s books and is under contract by a company to create its new logo.

He plans on completing 15 pencil drawings of his family’s pictures and then showing them around the nation. His agent in Seattle already contacted people in New York City about a possible exhibit.

No matter where the exhibit goes, though, Sandland said he wants to make a stop in Sumner.

“I want to come down to share (the pictures) with anyone who wants to see them,” he said.