10 years of SamG... how it all started, and what's up now

Looking back to ten years ago this month to November 2007.  I was not real happily married and out of work.  I had been laid off from work and couldn't find a job anywhere.  One particular evening, my wife was fussing at me (it was a favorite hobby of hers, i think) about me not having a job.  In these days of having to apply online for everything, I got on the computer and started applying for all the jobs I'd already applied for several times.  I was really just killing time trying to get an angry wife off my back.  A little box popped up on the screen, "Find the Perfect Career for You!!!"  All I was doing was wasting time anyway, so I clicked on it and started filling out a quiz.  The quiz was pretty long and took about 45 minutes to complete.  Forty five minutes of quiet was pretty sweet.  The results came in... "You should be an artist!"  

I laughed.  I can't even draw.  I began to joke about it and tell people that I was going to become an artist.  A couple of weeks later, my wife bought me some paints, brushes, and a palette for my birthday.  It was about a month late.  We were too broke when my birthday came around to do anything.  

I knew nothing about painting.  I had never done it before.  I can't even draw.  I found a piece of scrap wood in the barn and painted my Uncle Speedy and his one tooth on it.  It was to be a gift to my aunt Mary Ann for Christmas. When I got finished I went to sign it.  I started to paint my name on it and ran out of room after SamG.  I've been SamG ever since. Several years later, the World Famous was added.  I was reading about Andy Warhol.  Before anyone knew who he was, he would send in people ahead of him to announce he was coming.  He wasn't famous at the time, but nobody knew any different.  So I figured if I told people I was famous and they believed me, then in their mind, I was famous.   

In a previous life, I'd been in the antique business and would still buy and resale out of my house.  People would come to the house to buy from me and they started seeing my paintings and wanted to buy them.  Everything was $20, no matter what it was.  I started numbering my art starting with that first painting I did of my Uncle Speedy.  I still have #2 and #3, and was recently able to buy back #7. 

About a year later, I got divorced.  I'd gotten rehired by the auto parts company and was back to travelling every other week.  I left the auto parts company in 2011 after my knee surgery.  I began doing my art full time.  I tried to make a career out of it, but always keeping the attitude that if it ever became work, I'd quit.  As I exposed myself more to the art world and met other artists, I saw a new world with people that I understood.  People who were like me.  I'd found where I belonged.  I gave out a lot of Free Hugs.

I moved a lot.  A lot.  I wound up in Northeast Georgia in 2013. The worst financial decision I ever made.  I'd have left here if I could have afforded to.  I still have a love/hate relationship with these mountains.  That's another story for another time.  

Currently, I'm not doing many shows anymore.  Still recuperating from my heart incident back in March.  I have been working on SamG Land.  That will be an ongoing continuous project.  I'm back to making some art (i'm up to #2074).  I try to spend 3-4 hours per day in the studio.  I've been in a real creative slump the past couple of weeks.  I'll get it back soon.  

The past 10 years have been up and down.  I've had some really good adventures and made some really good friends.  I also had a lot of great opportunities that just didn't work out for some reason or another.  I'm not going to complain though.  It's been a lot of fun.  Since my heart incident, my perspective on life has changed a whole lot.  My goal now is to live and have fun.  While art has always been my "happy fun-time."  Nowadays, life is even more focused on having fun.

Thanks everyone for 10 years of support and all the love you've given me.

SamG loves ya back.

The one about almost dying...

Today I celebrated my 47th birthday.  I have never really liked my birthday in the past.  I'd always get in some kind of weird funk and get depressed from my birthday all the way through Christmas.  This time I've actually been thankful for my birthday for the first time in quite a while.

I have told the story many times since it happened but have yet to write anything about it in detail.  Some of the facts may not be accurate, but I'm going to tell you the story as I remember it. On March 13th, I was working in my studio and came up to the house to drink a cup of coffee, smoke a cigarette (the last one I'll ever smoke), and to use the bathroom.  I had done my business and was fixing to start on the paperwork.  I heard something in my chest pop.  It sounded like the cork gun I played with as a child.  It felt like someone reached into my chest, grabbed a handful of stuff, and twisted it.  I remember everything getting blurry and going black.  My first thought was, "I ain't gonna die on the shitter like Elvis."  I began to pray a simple prayer, "God help me.  Please help me."  I didn't know what was going on.  I kinda had an idea that it was heart related but figured it wasn't too serious.  I almost laid down to see if it would get any better.  My eyesight was getting worse.  I decided that I wanted to try to get in touch with Lorri at work.  I was in pain but I was able to tolerate it.  I was walking around with my arm fully extended trying to see my phone to call.  I called her every few minutes for almost an hour and a half.  I finally was able to find her daughter's number. They work at the same place.  I called her and told her I was in pretty bad shape and to have Lorri call me.  A few minutes later, she called.  I told her what happened and she came home to take me to the hospital.  When she got here I was pacing back and forth across the porch.  I got in the car and we left for the hospital in Demorest.  Upon arriving, I got Lorri to let me out at the door while she parked and I walked in by myself.

I was greeted by the lady at the desk and told her I was having chest pains and I couldn't see.  From there things started happening pretty fast.  I remember them checking my blood pressure and it was extremely low on my left side.  The doctor asked me if I'd ever been told I had a heart murmur.  I told him No.  He had them check the blood pressure in my other arm and there was a significant difference.  He ordered a CAT scan with dye.  He stood there watching the whole time.  As soon as I was finished, they rolled me back into the exam room.  It seemed like only a matter of seconds before the doctor came in.  I remember him telling me that I had a dissected aorta and that my aorta was leaking.  An ambulance was on it's way to take me to Gainesville for emergency open heart surgery.   I don't remember the words, but he pretty much gave me a good idea as to the severity and possibility that I wouldn't make it.  I called my brother Tim and told him what was going on.  I made a facebook post asking people for prayer for me, posted a picture, then turned my phone off and handed it to Lorri.  The ambulance came and I was loaded up.  I started talking to the guy riding in the back with me.  I remember him telling me about his father had some heart complications and how good the care was that he had received at the hospital.  I remember asking him to pray for me.  He said that he would.  I did have a little fear, but mostly I was at peace.  I remember thinking I didn't want to die because I didn't want to miss football season or the last two Star Wars movies.  I thought about wanting to celebrate another birthday.

I arrive by ambulance at Northeast Ga Medical Center and as soon as the doors open, I'm greeted by the surgical team.  Dr. Winston introduces himself and we joke with each other as we are going through the emergency room into the operating room.  I remember rolling into the operating room.  I was given anesthesia pretty quick.  During the time I was under anesthesia, I had the vision that I was floating in yellow water.  There were bright lights shining thru the water.  I could see other people floating as well.  We were all connected to this giant nerve network that I figure was what was keeping us all alive.  I heard someone call my name, Mr. Granger.  There was an intense feeling of water rushing over my face, as if being pulled through the water.  I knew I was going somewhere.  Where was I going?  Was I alive or dead?  Am I going to heaven?  I heard my name again.  I woke up to the sound of one of the nurses calling my name, Mr. Granger.  There were monitors and hoses and tubes everywhere.  I was alive!!!!  I remember my brothers coming in there.  I remember Lorri coming in a little later.  I'm so thankful for her and everything she did during all of that.  She made so many things so much easier for me.  I don't remember much for several days.  I remember there were really cute nurses in Intensive Care but I was in no shape to flirt with them.  I do remember so many doctors and nurses telling me that I had no idea how lucky I was to be here.  That I should have died within minutes. Telling me that God had something in store for me because I shouldn't be here.  Telling me that I'm a miracle.  I felt like some sort of medical celebrity for a while.

Over the next several days, I started learning more about what I'd gone through.  A ruptured aortic aneurysm and had been given an artificial aortic valve.  I started realizing the love and prayers and an amazing outpouring of love heaped on me by so many people.  I still cry when i think about it.  I'd like to thank everyone for those prayers, they worked!  Over the next several months, many shared with me the stories about what they were doing during the time I was in surgery.  Many prayed, some performed spiritual ceremonies, and several admitted to me that they were bracing themselves to hear the news of my death.  I also had quite a few tell me they thought I was pulling some sort of joke.

So I sit here on the night of my 47th birthday thinking back to that ambulance ride and the reasons I came up with for living at that time.  I celebrated my birthday today with Carvel Ice Cream Cake (i've always wanted one).    The Dawgs are currently 7-0.  The next Star Wars movie comes out in two months.  Looking forward to living some more.  Love you all so much.

SamG