New work of Sanford McGee was exhibited at St. Andrew's-Sewanee Gallery, February 12- March 9th 2007. The works on copper in the "Tea House Series" began about two years ago when McGee was commissioned to create a piece for a Japanese tea house in Connecticut. McGee explains, "A tea house is a place built specifically to house the tea ceremony. This ritualized process of preparation, making, and receiving tea was brought to Japan from China in the tenth century and became an integral part of Zen Buddhism practice."
A life-long naturalist, McGee is a native of Beersheba Springs, on the Cumberland Plateau in southeast Tennessee is. He taught secondary school for 18 years. After teaching in Manchester, he joined the Science department of St. Andrew's-Sewanee School (19981-87) at the formation of the school twenty-five years ago. While at SAS, he taught biology, headed the science department, began the SAS Earth Day tradition, and lead the development of the "Sense of Place" Senior Lecture series, now a hallmark of the school. McGee's former students would not be surprised that he is working with nature, both as his tools and as his subject matter. Specimen collection for the herbarium was a central part of each lab course. As and educator then and as an artist now, he is known for his enthusiastic illustrations of how "everything is connected!"
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