“It’s about making it work and having faith that this is what I’m supposed to do, about a deeper knowing, really, and then dealing with the consequences of this choice.”
— Blakeney Sanford
About Blakeney Sanford
Blakeney Sanford, a multimedia sculptor from California, blends her passion for the natural world with innovative art practices, creating works that range from large-scale land art to immersive sculptures. With an international exhibition profile, including a recent showcase at COP27 in Egypt, her work integrates environmental themes with artistic exploration.
In the following interview, Sanford expounds on her career-defining series The Portals, a series of vivid blue sculptures set in remote natural landscapes, designed to extend the art experience from indoor spaces to the outdoors, challenging viewer perceptions of art and environment.
Sanford discusses the balance between her artistic vision and the practical aspects of her career, emphasizing how risk-taking and personal insights have shaped her projects. The Portals not only exemplifies her skill in form and color but also her intent to connect individuals with the collective and the metaphysical, inviting a deeper engagement with both the seen and unseen elements of our world.
Brady Walker: Today, I’m excited to welcome Blakeney Sanford to our interview series. Blakeney is an artist who started minting with Makerspace when we introduced our physical art unlockable flow. She works at the intersection of digital and physical, installation art and land art. Blakeney, why don’t you introduce yourself, and we’ll get into it?
Blakeney Sanford: Brady, I’m so happy to be here with you today, discussing my work and the evolution of my process, which I’ve developed over a decade as an installation artist. My work has primarily been large-scale production environments, immersive spaces, using materials that I developed in my studio—panels that are cast in various shades of blue and installed in different formats. The original objective was to translate the experience of being in water through a solid material, with these pieces ultimately intended to immerse people, making them feel submerged in colored shadow.
BW: When I was looking through your body of work, I found the distinct shades of blue you use unsurprising, given your background in sailing, surfing, and windsurfing. Viewing the art was enlightening, and I would love to experience it in person.
BS: It’s been a lifelong direction for me, but I didn’t pursue it until my late 20s. In undergrad, I studied studio art, mathematics, and education, and initially went into teaching math, which I’ve done for 20 years with private students at the high school and college level. This keeps my brain sharp, and I love numbers, problem-solving, and engineering, which is applicable to the work I do at the scale I do it. A lot of my work is patterned, geometric, and in multiples. It requires a lot of figuring out, which I’ve managed in-house, in my studio, and brain.
I also taught on sailboats, worked on boats, rebuilt sailboats, and spent a lot of time on the water as an educator. Then I went to Baja to teach for the National Outdoor Leadership School. There, I had a near-death experience that pushed me to pursue my art career. After my recovery, I transformed aspects of my life and pursued my art career with a vengeance when I was 28-29, creating large-scale works using materials I knew from working on sailboats, like fiberglass and resin, to manipulate shapes, solidify liquids, and adjust colors. We developed that system and applied it in different formats and locations with site-specific installations.
BW: Where was the ideation process and jumping into things? I know you had a clear vision of the materials you would use, but how exploratory were these early pieces? Did you have a clear vision from the start?
BS: It was more like channeling an arrival of information. This vision came like a lightning bolt, wanting to create a space with colored shadows in shades of blue. I envisioned a structure that allowed light to pass through, causing colored shadows so that the viewer would become part of the piece. It was experiential, immersive, and evocative of what I had been doing for 10 years—spending so much time on the water, working on dive boats, surfing, sailing.
Translating that experience into an interior space was the inspiration. I didn’t know how to do that initially, so I started experimenting with materials. I went to Fiberglass Hawaii, where they suggested using a mold, casting resin, and a wax to release it. I had no idea what I was doing. I bought paraffin for canning at the hardware store, waxed these molds, and went to town with it. The first iteration, producing over 100 panels, was with this method I developed, and it stuck.
They said to use fiberglass, but I used a fiberglass screen from the hardware store instead. There were all these different structural elements that became what it was because I jumped on whatever I could integrate based on what I knew. That’s how the work became what it was and what it continued to be, becoming this signature structure, the baseline of the work.
BW: As far as the practical side of jumping into life as an artist, what did those practical steps look like? Where did the first purchase or paycheck come from? What was the thought process behind deciding to do this thing that might not pay off for a while? What were those implications, and how did you tackle that?
BS: I did it totally irresponsibly, took a deep dive and a super leap of faith. Because of what I’d been through, there was no holding back. I didn’t think logically through the standard outcomes or deal with potential consequences. It was more about the need to do this; it was oozing out of me. I made it work, continued teaching independently with a flexible schedule, meeting with students when needed.
I navigated it by figuring out other work that could support the work I was doing and the schedule I needed. I said yes to every opportunity that came. The first piece was in the courtyard of an outdoor shopping area in San Clemente. I just went down, looked at the space, and executed. I had things rigged on cables, suspended from concrete blocks. It’s about making it work and having faith that this is what I’m supposed to do, about a deeper knowing, really, and then dealing with the consequences of this choice.
BW: Those early pieces were very light, see-through, to accomplish this colored shadow effect that would immerse people. But now you’re working on this Portals series. I’m curious about where that blue came from, where the square came from. What happened the first time you photographed it? What’s the genesis of what’s now, at least as far as the on-chain art world is concerned, your signature look?
BS: By taking that leap of faith and putting myself out there, I started to meet people in the surfer world, who really took a liking to my work. I ended up working as an artist in residence for Quicksilver and Roxy in Southern California. This led to other opportunities with commercial brands. I worked with GoPro on a piece through their headquarters in San Mateo, and I started to create these panels on a different scale and in a different shape.
Most of my installations that use square pieces were developed for this installation with GoPro. It’s actually the same material. The visual play with it in photographs changes color based on light and is translucent. Even this piece behind me, which doesn’t look translucent, allows my form to be seen through it. The color difference we’re seeing in the images changes based on light.
If I installed the portal on an East-West plane, I can adjust it based on the sun’s position. If the sun is in front too much, it reflects rather than backlights, totally changing the blue. At night, in the external environment, it looks almost like a black panel. It absolutely responds to light, which I love.
BW: I do want to talk about your process. Maybe let’s start by looking at the full-size piece, the sculpture that is the Portal.
BS: One interesting thing, though—it’s frontlit right now, so it’ll be reflective and you won’t get that translucent quality. I’ll show you. This gives you an idea behind the scenes. If sunlight were hitting this… This is the piece. I’ve taken it all over the world, installed it in different environments, and it has the scars to prove it.
Another interesting thing I’m realizing is how people perceive this work: they can think it’s a cube, they think it’s a plane, or they think it’s opaque, which I love. It’s totally subjective. I give you a title and let you experience it your way. Yes, this piece is 3.5 x 3.5 feet. I’m physically taking this work, and you can see me through it, right? You can see the translucent aspect. And you can also see that it’s a plane. It’s very thin.
BW: When I saw the work initially, I thought it was a cube. It reminded me of Donald Judd and those kinds of large, square, upright installation pieces.
BS: It’s interesting because the work I’m doing with this and subsequent work that’s coming is cubic. It’s about creating immersive space. It’s all one and the same, all about dimension—our perception, 2D, 3D. If it’s a square, if it’s a cube, then into the 4D, having multiple axes. It’s our perception of reality, which is a very big component of the Portal series. This is the scale you can see. It’s large. I’m taking that out into the world. That’s actually important to talk about in this realm, in the digital art realm, because many people see my work and think it’s digitally rendered, or that I placed that square in the space digitally.
BW: Let’s talk a bit about that process. I know you have some samples with you. There are three pieces of work that come from every shoot, right?
BS: Each location for the portal project is about expanding dimensions. Each exists in multiple dimensions: in 2D as a limited-edition archival print.
Then I do a Polaroid I call “proof of moment,” unalterable, capturing the letting go process for me. This artifact proves I’m there at that time and releases control. And they mix and multiply for all these different locations. The blue changes depending on lighting and how the Polaroid captures it.
Then I have the 3D physical sculpture piece that collectors collect. It’s different from this, thicker, varied material, and at scale for people’s private or public collections.
The video work captures each dimension. I love the video work because it plays on perception—what you think you’re seeing versus what you’re really seeing. The movement is subtle; the portal is installed in the physical environment, but super still, and the environment subtly moves around it. I call these the Portals of Kinesis because of this movement around the actual portal itself. Some are so subtle, like a wheat field with MakersPlace, moving ever so slightly, where you look at it and think it’s a still image. To see that at scale on a wall, on a monitor, and have someone walk by and think it’s a still image and then something subtle catches their eye—that’s so exciting to me, the unexpected. It’s the whole thing with these portals: inserting something unexpected into the environment.
BW: The portal is something you’re known for, especially in the on-chain art world. What has your experience been like building and sustaining a body of work and a presence in web three? It’s quite the hustle out there. How do you manage, and what does career-building look like for you?
BS: It feels a bit like the Wild West—exhausting but exciting and invigorating. I love this space because it feels so uncharted, which has always appealed to me. Going into this space feels expansive, like we’re all creating something that’s never been done before. There’s also the reality of developing a community with people worldwide, which aligns with my global project of connecting people to people and places through this portal.
I debuted my first piece on Foundation at the end of 2021 and continued in 2022. I started working with MakersPlace last August; we did a show in Carmel through networking, which is essential in life and the art world. I’ve been observing this space for a couple of years, patiently understanding its value, as this is a long-term project. I’m not in a rush. I enjoy connecting with people who resonate with my work, fostering friendships and relationships.
The New York show was a huge opportunity, thanks to MakersPlace for believing in the work. It allowed me to get the work in front of others through multiple avenues, like Twitter and galleries. This opportunity to talk about my work and explain it helps people understand its breadth and depth. I’m bridging traditional and digital art spaces with this project, which I love. It’s about intuitive trust, leaps of faith, authenticity, courage, and connecting with people in a real way.
BW: Can you tell me about the 3D pieces you mentioned earlier that you’re working on?
BS: The Portal sculptures we discussed are expanding. They’re bringing back the installation pieces I was doing, but at scale and more abstract—translating water or waves into geometric shapes, creating immersive spaces that envelop people in blue.
BW: Will there ever be a permanently installed outdoor Portal?
BS: Absolutely. The project is somewhat scattered as I’m taking it to England and Europe for an exhibition this summer. However, there will be a regional focus, where the work can be seen in gallery spaces in various iterations, and installations that people can experience physically in the region. I’m working on figuring that out and can’t wait to invite you all to a Portal. It’s very exciting.
BW: I just have a few questions inspired by Hans Ulrich Obrist. What is your unrealized project?
BS: It’s the Portal concept, envisioned at a very large scale, discovered by multiple people. I love the concept of discovery and surprise—finding something unexpected. So, having Portals exist in places where people least expect them, existing simply to exist. Maybe some will never see the work, but it’s there. If someone happens upon it, their experience with it is what it is.
This project is sort of the unrealized project at the moment because it’s where I envision it going on a global scale. These works would extend to multiple locations, and through these iterations, my goal is to gather information from each location to develop a database of visual data imagery that shows our interconnectedness. I’m working on this unrealized project right now.
BW: You described your vision earlier in a way that made me think about scale. Could it be a 40-foot cube, which would be really cool, or as you went on, perhaps a four-foot cube hidden all over the world?
BS: I’d say yes to both. It’s quickly evolving; ideas flew to me flying to New York and back. It’s about scale in terms of multiples in various locations across the globe, and also about the scale of experience—having an absurdly large sculpture that makes you feel tiny. People don’t know how big this is; some think it’s tiny, and others have no concept. I love that ambiguity. It’s about playing with the physical scale of the work and its breadth globally.
I’m also exploring dimensions beyond our perceived realms. Without giving too much away, as I’m still formulating this, think of it as layers, like a never-ending Gobstopper. You lick this candy, and all the layers start to expose: the 2D work that exists worldwide, the 3D work, the NFT work, and another realm I’m developing. You can visualize this through projection or data visualization, which should be straightforward to render.
The goal is to create a web of connections between people, collectors, and places, exploring our connection to each other and to locations on the planet that have significance—not because they’re famous but because they hold personal or collective meaning. It’s about extending the extraordinary in the ordinary through these portals.
BW: There is an advantage to not having a permanent installation of these anywhere—that nobody will ever Instagram themselves with a portal.
BS: I think about that too. How do you keep it from getting diluted? I’ve considered many exercises, like using AR to have people photograph themselves, and we have multiples because of that. I ponder how much control I want and how much I want to let go without diluting it. But it’s not about hoarding it; it’s about accessibility. I would love for everyone to experience this, so maybe they are Instagramming themselves at the Portal. I think about all these things incessantly. I have great vision for this in terms of scale. I’ll share more with you soon, but I’m thinking about both the quantity and the actual physical scale.
BW: Who do you admire most in history?
BS: In history? It’s less about a specific person and more about a characteristic—the courage to trust one’s intuition and to pursue what speaks most loudly internally. So authors, artists, writers, creators, entrepreneurs—everyone who has the courage to trust themselves.
BW: What music are you listening to?
BS: Meditation music. It’s an insane contrast to walk into construction zones and urban environments with it.
BW: Are there any quotes you live by?
BS: Lately, it is “I am what I am and that is enough.”
BW: I love it. That reflects who you admire in history, having the confidence and chutzpah to stick to one’s guns.
BS: Yes, to trust the voice inside, regardless of the voices outside.
