Whimsical Sacramento artist asks, ‘Can it be done?’ The answer is usually ‘yes’

Many artists would tell you to expect the unexpected in their work. If you’re talking to Julian Sandpaper, he might be telling you exactly what to expect.

Sandpaper’s not pulling punches, as evidenced by his chosen last name and his primary medium of wood. Or that one of his current projects is taking old Sacramento Bee newspaper boxes and repurposing them into bee hives. In some ways, it is what it is. In many ways, it’s nothing you’ve seen before.

Was art something he studied?

“No, not at all,” said Sandpaper, whose real last name is Sander. “I got to where I am through funny avenues, but it always came through building stuff and observing things — hanging out with other artists. It’s more just been me experimenting and playing around.”

Most of Sandpaper’s work comes from a curiosity about whether something can be done. Could you take the design of a skateboarding half pipe and use it on its side and make the top rail into a place to hang retail clothing? Yes. Could you build a trade show booth where all the display pieces for inside the booth are built into the walls? Yes. What about building a giant roller chain where the links are made out of wood? Yes.

But it all started with wondering if he could carve sunglasses out of wood. Of course, yes.

“Sunglasses turned into ukeleles and retail displays — things just kept getting bigger and more complicated,” Sandpaper said.

For the last five or six years, Sandpaper has been creating work for himself that is part carpentry, part engineering, and a whole lot of artistry. After growing up in Granite Bay, and realizing he wanted to make new things as a career, Sandpaper went to the Tahoe area to work with some friends building ukeleles. Now he’s thrilled to be working in downtown Sacramento, with a community that encourages and supports creative arts. Sandpaper’s expertise is in using laser cutters.

And though he’s in Sacramento, he’s still sending ukelele parts to Tahoe for his friends manufacturing the instruments.

“It’s an amazing medium, to be able to take wood and literally give it a voice,” he said. “It turned out I loved making trade show displays, because of the story that you get to tell about the brand that you’re working with, and then there are all the constraints like shipping and set up.”

Of course, trade shows are not synonymous with freeflowing creativity. There are rules. Lots of rules.

Sandpaper takes that as a challenge — to be creative while still abiding. He planned to spend most of this year working on displays, but with the coronavirus pandemic causing the cancellation of most trade shows, Sandpaper has had to pivot. He’s always worked with other businesses to build what they need so now he’s shifting into their other needs.

A lot of Sandpaper’s work comes from trying to solve the usual problem with an unusual solution, like in the case of the half pipe clothing display. The company he was working with wanted a creative way to display clothing other than just a rack, so Sandpaper came up with a half pipe. That’s where his success from working with retail businesses has come from — his desire to create a different experience for retail.

“I’ve always been an artist, but at the end of the day it’s still a business,” he said.

Sandpaper’s Sacramento Bee box hives are not out of left field for him. A couple of years ago he was contacted by a beekeeper to create something called sun hives, which are orb-shaped bee hives.

Many bee keepers use a hive system that is based on what is most productive for the bee keepers themselves. A sun hive focuses on the bees, with more curves and an entrance at the bottom, just like bees would do themselves.

Now he’s excited to use that experience and knowledge, but add a whimsical approach.

Rather than making things “pretty,” Sandpaper is more focused on telling a story. That storytelling was evident in the display he worked on where everything for the inside of the booth was in the walls. His story was, “We build from the environment around us.” He started with solid walls and cut what he needed for the inner displays of the booth out of the walls. It was about using what was available.

Projects with a backstory are where Sandpaper finds his inspiration.

“A lot of the hours I clock in the shop are me sitting and thinking, not necessarily sanding something like my name might imply,” he said.

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You can follow Sandpaper’s journey on his website at www.juliansandpaper.com.

This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.