About the artist:

Born in Manitoba, Canada, in 1917, Sandgren grew up in Portland and Chicago. He received his art education at the Chicago Institute of Design, the University of Oregon, the University of Michoacan, Mexico, and earned both his B.A. and M.F.A. at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University). After graduation in 1947, he joined the faculty there and served as a professor until his retirement in 1987.

Nelson was greatly influenced by his teachers at the University of Oregon - David McCosh, Andrew Vincent, and Jack Wilkinson, and although he did not study with her, Sandgren shared art philosophies with Maude Kerns in the later years of her life.

In 1947 and 1948, Nelson studied with a second major influence in his work, Mexican muralist Alfredo Zalce, in Morelia, Michoacan.