Thursday, November 2, 2017

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.


2 comments:

  1. You, sir, are also a philosopher. May playfulness and wonderment guide us all.

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  2. Thank you so much for your life story. makes me appreciate your art even more! A little advice for your slump time. Open a book or dictionary and point to a word with out looking first, let that be an inspiration for your next painting! P.S. I don't remember where I read this advice, hopefully not from you, but if it was, take your own advice! Would be fun to find out what your word was and resulting painting! Marlynne Snare Folk Artist on Facebook

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