Cycling and Creativity Sandra Sommer

Ride & Create: Sandra Sommer

From the moment the door swings open to reveal her quiet Salzburg studio, it is clear that Sandra Sommer is passionate about bikes. Paintings, each displaying cyclists in a unique style, hang from pegs along the walls.

A gorgeous pink vintage Basso, aged like fine wine, leans against a wall. Its presence ties the room together and completes the atmosphere. Sandra is serene and down-to-earth. Sporting a wide grin, she leads us to the cork-lined tray, resting atop a trestle, where most of her creative tools sit.

The young art graduate now teaches her passion to others. ‘I’ve painted ever since I was young and I always wanted a creative job.’ Having recently become a mother, Sandra divides her time between her young family and her studio. She rides her bike whenever she gets the chance. ‘My relationship with creation has evolved over the years. Maturity, travelling, chance encounters, life experiences all change us significantly and hugely evolve our sensitivity and our perspective on the world.’

Her technique involves a mixture of various mediums: paints, pencils, inks, colouring pencils. She works with high quality paper in different sizes and she admits to being most comfortable and more spontaneous with smaller pieces. ‘I was influenced by the wave of cycling photos that have appeared on social media over the past few years, posted by permanently performing cyclists. This is a subject that I wanted to explore.’

She examines these snapshots of sporting lives and breathes new life into scenes that grab her attention. Doing this her way, in her own artistic way, has gathered pace as a creative idea. She scans dozens of Instagram pages and observes.

‘For many, the actual ride has actually become less significant than the photos taken of it. For some, it has even become a major pastime. They are devoted to creating a constant stream of images to “satisfy” their community and maintain control over their popularity. This relentless pace of posting and this image control really spoke to me. I asked myself what I could do with this as an artist.’

Sandra’s painting technique is full of meaning. She calmly takes a small piece of thick embossed paper, picks up a vial and pours ink on it. Grasping it with both hands, she directs the ink onto the paper to make a ‘mark’ that we mere novices wouldn’t know what to do with. She knows. Her inspiration stems from a photo of yet another cycling Instagram account. This ‘splash’ of paint as a starting point in her works is part of the process, it is uncontrolled, spontaneous. It represents letting go. Letting go of not only our ever active lives but also the control over our image. A slow creative process follows. 24 hours later, when the ink is dry, Sandra dwells on her creation. A bit of pencil here. A brushstroke there. This slowed down creative process is what interests Sandra the most in this race for content. ‘I send the painting to these people who do not know me. They are surprised and often shocked that I even discovered their photo. We exchange ideas, it’s a very enriching process.’

Sandra fits in rides between professional and family commitments. Despite balancing all of these, she still manages to clock an impressive 8000m average elevation per month. Her longer outings with friends reach 100km. She mostly rides alone, however, between 25 and 40km, always climbing, as Salzburg is at the foot of the mountains.

Inspiration can strike when you least expect it. ‘During the ride, it’s important to reach that unplugged state that acts as a trigger’, that moment which the researchers from our previous article highlighted. ‘When I ride, I’m living in the moment. My thought process and stream of consciousness slow down. That’s the moment when my mind runs free. I’ve noticed that my best creative ideas come to me then.

I organise my creative sessions around my rides in order to tap into the one I just finished. That peace of mind and inner calmness that I am still carrying have a positive effect on my creation. For some people, it’s the first hour of the day that counts. Great artists such as Picasso kept a notebook with them as ideas and inspiration often came early in the morning. For me, it strikes when I get back to my studio after a ride’.

The whole idea of focusing on this project was born while riding her bike, as was the urge to bring slowness into her life and social media. ‘I was wondering how to bring that to life and why. I realised that the experience I was living on my bike was the perfect illustration of what I wanted to do. Sometimes it’s quick, sometimes it’s slow. I wanted that idea to shine through. When you take your fingers off the brakes on a descent, you hit 80km/h and that’s the moment when you lose control’.

To see more of Sandra's work, take a look at her instagram page @sandis_art.

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