Sculpture in Stone by Gerald Sandau
Biography
Born in 1942, second of seven children , Gerry grew up on a farm near Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, in the heart of the Canadian prairies. An expert horseman at an early age, he spent his free time roaming the historic Cypress Hills, acquiring a kinship with the wild and the free. To him the First Nations winter camp on the outskirts of Maple Creek, the enormous buffalo wallows he played in as a child and the hundred yard ribbon of wagon ruts crossing the farm towards the Hills, all attested to the reality and richness of our Heritage. During his school years Gerry always excelled in equesteian events, sporting events and art classes, but the love for horses and the outdoors was his passion. His school teachers labeled him a dreamer. He attributes his passion to an old gentleman named Louis Garskie, one of the area's first settlers. Louis was a hunter, trapper, guide, horse trainer and a teamster (one who trains and drives teams of four and more horses). He took Gerry in hand at an earley age and shared everything he knew about horses, wildlife, hunting and trapping. Gerry says, "He was the Grandfather every young boy should have." In the spring of 1952, we sat on the top of Bald Butte, (the highest elevation on the Cypress Hills, the scene in the following picture), and Louis described the awesome site as he had seen it some eighty years before. Louis said, "The prairie, as far as the eye could see, was a solid mass of shaggy brown Buffalo."
That was the last migration of the great herds moving from the central United States. After the deliberate slaughter that was killing them for their hides, there was nothing left but bones, bleaching white by the prairie sunshine. Gerry said, "When I looked up at him there was a tear running down his cheek." A tear in remembrance of a way of life, gone forever.
Gerry grew-up on the back of a horse in the summer and on his trapline in the winter, A sharp jacknife alway in his pocket, from a piece of wood he carved his toys and necessary tools for survival, weather it be a Colt 45 or a Henery Pepeating Rifle. His mother said he was born seventy years to late. 1961 saw him graduate from high school. The following year he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. After training in firefighting and crash rescue he spent the next five years in Canadian Forces Bases Grotonquin and Marville, France. In the Base Fire Hall in Marville is where he began to explore his talent and started his first challenging project:
(Carved on two seperate pieces of light mahogany and joined down the the center before completion.) However , this project got burried in a trunk for the next sixteen years. In 1965, while holidaying in Ostend, Belgium, Gerry's single life came to an abrupt end, he met Yvonne Lister. The following year they were married in Yvonne's home town, Rochdale, England. For the next year they made their home in the beautiful town of Florinville, Belgium, in the heart of the Ardens Forest.
In 1968 Gerry was posted to Winnipeg, Manitoba and decided to end his Air Force career and go back to farming. He took back to Canada with him a daughter of England, wife Yvonne, and a deep appreciation of the rich Art and Culture of the European countries. They farmed in Scandia, Alberta for the next sixteen years and raised three wonderful children, a daughter, Michelle, and two sons, Mark and Matthew. Gerry says, "The most important reason for living is our children, we live forever, through them." In the community and district, Gerry was instrumental in the organizing and training of the Volunteer Fire Department, and was the Fire Chief there for ten years. In 1984 they quite farming and moved to Chilliwack, in the beautiful Fraser Valley of southwestern British Columbia. Here Gerry was employed as a part time firefighter at Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack, and when not working on the Base, operated his own renovation business, Gerry's Home Improvements. Its during this time he brought out the project he'd started in France, finished it and created many more beautiful pieces. The British Columbia forests provided a bountiful variety of medium. However, he had not yet found his true calling. In 1995 an accident amputated the four fingers of his left hand, making it impossible to hold the the sculptures while working on them. Out of nacessity, he turned to the softer stone as a medium. As he puts it, "One does not move a three hundred pound piece of stone around, one moves around it." Incredibly, with the limited use of his left hand and no formal training in the Arts, Gerry can turn large lumps of stone into detailed three dimentional images. His only regret is that he did not explore his talent fourty years sooner. He says, "God blessed each one of His Children with special, unique talents and gifts. As parents and guardians, help and encourage the children, so they may reach their full potential as God intended."
Today, if not taking his grandchildren on nature hikes, or Barbershop singing, you will find him in his studio, putting his imagination and preception into preserving, with love, a piece of our Heritage.