Style Imitating Art | Layered Sand Art by Andrew Clemens

boho winter outfit, yellow boho cardigan, snow boots, orange Panama hat, floral scarf, Style Imitating Art, Shelbee on the Edge

It is time for me to start getting dressed again! I have spent most of the holiday break in my comfiest, coziest, warmest, loungiest clothes parked right in front of my blazing fireplace. It has been very snowy and exceptionally cold which has driven me further indoors with little desire to step outside. But now it is time to get up, get dressed, get out, and get stuff done. So here we go…

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Wanting something unique to start the year, Salazar chose this week’s very fascinating artwork, the layered sand bottles of Iowan artist Andrew Clemens.

The Artwork

Layered Sand Art by Andrew Clemens

About the Artist: Andrew Clemens

Andrew Clemens was born on January 29, 1857, in Dubuque, Iowa, to Margaretha Wolf of Germany and Johann Clemens of Prussia. The young couple, ages 23 and 27 respectively, were passengers on board a sailing vessel headed to America in 1851. The journey was three long months on calm seas where romance was able to relieve the tedium of ocean travel. The couple first met on board and culminated their courtship in a wedding ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 18, 1852.

Johann, who shortened his name to John shortly after arriving in America, was trained as a locksmith in Germany, but found locksmith work hard to come by in Milwaukee. So he worked for a short while as a wagon-maker, earning just $10 per wagon to add the iron parts. Shortly thereafter, the couple gave birth to their first son, John, which merely added to the financial difficulties of the Clemens family.

With the discovery of gold in California, families began heading west in multitudes. Searching for a better opportunity, John Clemens followed the migration trend and moved his young family west of the Mississippi River to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1852, where he established a wagon shop with his brother Joseph. The family was prosperous in Dubuque and soon welcomed another son, August, born on June 19, 1854, followed by their third son, Andrew, born on January 29, 1857. Three other sons followed, Oscar, Albert, and Frank. Meanwhile, on August 4, 1856, John Clemens became an official citizen of the United States, renouncing all allegiance to his former home of Prussia.

Emigrants who patronized the Clemens’s wagon shop began sharing tales of McGregor, a town just up river from Dubuque that was being hailed as a future great metropolis of the midwest. Not one to miss an opportunity, John Clemens and his brother Joseph moved their families north to McGregor in 1858 where they opened a new wagon shop in partnership with Anton Thielen, also of Dubuque, Iowa.

The new wagon shop was attached to the family home, where young Andrew and his brothers lived the typical lives of midwestern boys during the mid-19th century, enjoying all the activity of migrants traveling through their town and visiting the family store. For his first five years, life was very pleasant for Andrew Clemens and his family, until he fell very ill with “brain fever” (we know it as encephalitis today). After the first physician claimed that 5 year old Andrew would not survive, John called in a second doctor who reassured them that Andrew would live but he would be completely deaf as a result of his illness. Because he was so young when he lost his hearing, Andrew’s speech also became impaired as a result.

His disability prevented Andrew from attending school with his brothers which left him bored and depressed at home. So his mother took the initiative of forming a way she could communicate with her son through simple lip formations and began teaching him lessons. He was a bright child and made some progress under his mother’s tutelage.

On November 11, 1870, thirteen year old Andrew was enrolled in the Iowa Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb at Council Bluffs. As a student, Andrew was bright and active, enjoyed his studies, and also appreciated the associations with other hearing and speech impaired children. He quickly adapted and thrived in his new school environment, but also really loved his summer vacations at home where his brothers were all very fond of him and looked forward to his return every year. Excelling in his carpenter classes, Andrew put those skills to use during his summer breaks at home, making things like shelf brackets, rolling pins, and baseball bats. The boys also enjoyed summer excursions together when they would visit Pictured Rocks where Andrew began collecting the colored sands and packing it into glass bottles.

Andrew continued his studies at the State School for the Deaf for six years until a fire destroyed the institution on February 25, 1877. The school encouraged Andrew to attend the Smithsonian Institution at Washington to be trained as teacher for when the Iowa Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb was rebuilt. Instead, twenty year old Andrew decided to return to his “happy hunting grounds” in McGregor and continue with his layered sand art.

He eventually was invited to sell his sand art bottles in Henry Goldschmidt’s grocery store, across the street from the Clemens’s wagon shop. Excited that Andrew was home to stay, the entire family set about to help him with his art. His father built him a two wheeled cart for transporting his supplies from Pictured Rocks, where Andrew and his brothers would visit twice a year to gather sand.

Andrew became increasingly involved in his sand art as his work progressed from simple patterns to much more intricately detailed portraits. He was becoming popular and selling his sand bottles for just a few dollars each. As he continued becoming more absorbed by his art, there were no romantic interests or other outside activities for young Andrew which began to take a toll on his overall health. He died on May 4, 1894, in McGregor, Iowa, at the age of 37.

On July 5, 1888, the editor of the North Iowa Times, wrote of Andrew Clemens,

“McGregor has an artist nowhere equaled in this world in his line of artistic work. He invented and became skilled in an artistic work all unaided and alone. He invented and made his own tools. He has thus brought to a surprising perfection an art of which he alone is the inventor, the master. We refer to the pictures wrought from sand from Pictured Rocks by Andrew Clemens. Our people do not properly appreciate this art. The master doesn’t seem to know its worth nor does he seem to realize his exalted position among the inventors of the world. Mr. Clemens lately completed what may be regarded as a masterpiece. He has made many fine efforts before. This last one is a perfect picture of General Washington on horseback. The artist has surpassed the copy, he gives the coloring, shadowing, form, all complete and perfect and all done in sand. The work shows a Mississippi River steamer running at full speed, a group of Indians in camp, the flag of our country, fields, harvest scene, all perfect and wrought with natural colored sands in a glass jar. The jar is open at the bottom and the work is commenced at the top of the picture. But to appreciate this wonderful work one must see it as we have seen it. It is one of the wonders of the age and ought to have a place among the great art of the world.”

Upon his death, the McGregor News published a half column obituary for Andrew Clemens which read in part,

Andrew Clemens “was a great artist, we cannot use the word ‘greatest’ because he stood alone in his self-invented art. He was a portrait painter without a brush or even paint. Sand was all he used, which he distributed with a small spoon, and a little stick. His work testifies for him in Europe as well as in this western Hemisphere. As an artist his place cannot be filled anymore, his special art has perished with its originator, and will be forever lost.”

About the Art: Layered Sand Art

The first step in his sand art was to prepare the tiny grains of colored sand. First he dried them thoroughly, spreading the desired color on a piece of coarse brown paper or blotting paper, and rubbing the sand gently with the back of a spoon. To ensure uniformity of size in the grains of sand, only the tiny grains that adhered to the paper were used in the sand bottles.

After many experiments, Andrew eventually created his own tools for his trade which included a small tin scoop that held one-fourth of a teaspoonful of sand. The scoop was fastened to a thin hickory wand that measured nine and one-quarter inches long and was used to insert the sand into the bottles. He used no dyes, glues, or pastes in his work but still he created delicate lines and beautiful combinations of naturally colored sands that were a testament to his inherent genius as an artist.

To make it even more interesting and difficult, he layered the sand into the bottles from the bottom, creating his artistic masterpieces upside down. The total amount of sand bottles created by Andrew Clemens is unknown but likely the count is in the hundreds.

Clemens was the only master of his particular art form, layering sands of different natural colors to create amazingly intricate patterns and pictures including names, dates, and other text, in pharmaceutical bottles, without glue or any other kind of binding material. During his lifetime, his sand bottles sold for around $1-8 (approximately $25-$200 in today’s purchasing power). However, one of his sand bottles, featuring an almost photographic depiction of 5 year old Orrin “O.T.” Fuller of Savanna, Illinois, was sold in 2021 for nearly $1 million.

References/Resources

About My Outfit

My outfit for this artistic style challenge happened quite by accident. I put this outfit on for a cozy, loungey, “stay-at-home in front of the fireplace day” last week when I quickly realized that the colors and the stripey pattern of my cardigan were perfect representations of the layered sand art. My favorite floral scarf also highlighted the floral pattern on the bottle I chose as my inspiration.

I wore my dark brown leggings and a rusty colored tee shirt with my rust Panama hat, brown fingerless mitts, and my very practical snow boots. I added my Shelbee mala beads, two owl necklaces, and a pair of thrift shop earrings which all coordinated with the natural colors of Andrew Clemens’s sand.

Then I called it done because I was very pleased with the result. I am also wearing this outfit today for the third time in a week!

How did I do with this Style Imitating Art challenge?

Be sure to check out how Salazar and Marsha have styled their outfits inspired by these intricate sand bottles. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, be sure to email your photos to her at 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com by Tuesday, January 14, 2025, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all wear!

Happy styling!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

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