Interview and photos by Seth Jovaag
A lifelong artist known for honoring undervalued sources of wisdom, Sandra Menefee Taylor has been using art to disrupt the status quo since the 1970s, when she and thirty-six other women artists founded the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) and the WARM Gallery. Recently honored as a 50 Over 50 Disruptor, AARP Minnesota’s Seth Jovaag spent the day with Sandra in a Minneapolis art gallery talking about “real Art” and making things.
“In a world of what’s precious, lace is precious. And dirt is dirty, icky. Putting the two together might ask the viewer to contemplate those things.”
Since the 1970s, Sandra has been trying to answer: “How do I fit in here.”
“If my feminist information started coming out then people were like, ‘Ahhh a ball-busting bitch.’ It was a conflicting place to be.”
Now 78, Sandra has partnered with the Wilder Foundation, using art to disrupt views of aging and memory loss and to reveal the creative capacity within everyone.
