Sandra Gould Ford is an author, artist, educator and steelworker [see her Steel Genesis web site].
Influences include professor Joseph Campbell’s belief that the world needs new myths and psychologist Frederick Herzberg’s statement, “The humanities – far from being mere entertainment or glitter – offer THE pragmatic data for reflection.” For Industry Week, John Flaherty wrote, “Every great work of literature illuminates the human condition, fuels thinking on timeless questions, and stimulates the imagination.”
These statements let this steel mill clerk believe writing could be meaningful, especially poet and journalist Roger Housden’s words, “(art is) the universal, perennial story of every man’s journey from innocence to experience, from ignorance to wisdom.” Roger Rosenblatt’s four purposes of writing remind: To make suffering endurable, evil intelligible, justice desirable and love possible.
In elementary school, she composed poems, crafted plays and created graphic novels. Gould Ford also designed clothes, attended Carnegie Museum of Arts’ Saturday morning classes and took her first photographs with a Brownie Bullet camera.
This University of Pittsburgh Master of Fine Arts graduate developed a mega-jail’s creative writing program. [See below]
The Wall Street Journal published one student’s haiku. Another won a PEN writing award.
Gould Ford’s quilts have been exhibited nationwide. Her photography has been shown internationally. She now enjoys presenting arts experiences that encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire.
Writing: Essay, memoir, poetry and fiction (from post-card to novel).
Photography: While Sandra once used large format [Sinar 4×5], medium format [Mamiya twin-lens] and Nikon 35 mm single lens reflex, she now uses small, digital Nikons. Those photographs are “developed” in MS Digital Image Suite and Adobe Photoshop. Images are presented in her on-line gallery.
Contemplative Art: Combinations of water colors, pastels, pen, ink and markers on paper.
Textile Arts: Sandra’s quilts range from bed size to wall hangings that are sometimes three-dimensional and often embellished with beads, metallic threads and found objects.
In 1983, Sandra Gould Ford’s thoughts about the arts advanced from hobby to a worthy career goal after reading these words by Pace University Professor, Dr. Frederick Herzberg: The humanities (literature) – far from being mere entertainment or glitter – offer THE pragmatic data for reflection, which in turn nourishes human productivity, innovation, ethics and character.
Joseph Campbell’s belief that the world needs new myths inspires Sandra’s work as well as these statements:
John Flaherty in “Timeless Books for Timely Issues:” Every great work of literature illuminates the human condition, fuels thinking on timeless questions, and stimulates the imagination.
Filmmaker Norman Jewison, accepting the Irving Thalberg award: Just tell us stories that move us to laugher and tears and perhaps tell us a little something about ourselves.
Roger Housden, “Life Lessons from Rembrandt:” … (art is) the universal, perennial story of everyman’s journey from innocence to experience, from ignorance to wisdom.
Roger Rosenblatt’s four purposes of writing (and art): To make suffering endurable, evil intelligible, justice desirable and love possible.
Creating and Teaching Writing and Art that Encourages, Refreshes, Enriches Creative Thinking and Inspires
With grant from Advancing Black Arts Pittsburgh (partnership of The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation), Sandra taught:
Sandra developed the Creative Writing Program at the Allegheny County Jail then gifted her work to Chatham University. The project is now known as Words Without Walls. The program sponsors a writing competition named in Sandra’s honor each year.
2010 – Instructor, Writing the Memoir, Osher Center, University of Pittsburgh
1998 – Published first novel in hardback with St. Martins Press, New York (released in trade paperback in 2000)
