We
are pleased to offer our fifth in a series of interviews featuring artists whose works are on view in "Storytellers,"
our current in-gallery exhibition at
Art Saint Louis on view through September 10, 2020 (open M-F 8-3, Sat.
9-2). If you can't make it to the Gallery to see the show in-person, we
offer a complete Facebook album featuring all 49 of the works in the exhibition along with accompanying information and artist's statements.
This week, we are pleased to present interviews with artists Aric Samm and Mike Bannes.
ARIC SAMM
ARIC SAMM
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| Featured in Art Saint Louis' "Storytellers" exhibit: Aric Samm, Belleville, IL. “Alice and the Jabberwocky.” 2020. Watercolor, Colored Pencil on 140lb Cold Pressed Cotton-Based Paper, 20”x26”. $280. Artist’s statement: “I found my inspiration for this from looking at old colored pages of Lewis Carrols works. coupled with that i came across a picture of St. George and the Dragon. with my colors picked i began working with concept sketches followed by watercolor and color pencil.” |
About the artist: My name is Aric Samm. I have always drawn since I was a kid. I like the clean lines of the work that I grew up watching and reading, such as comic books, Anime, and cartoons. I don't have any one major medium because I like to try new things. I really like watercolor and acrylic paint when working on two-dimensional work. When I was in the Army, I never had time or space to draw, and since my deployment, I have had difficulty being inspired. Thanks to my wife, I found inspiration again by being taken to paint nights. We teach each other so much and push each other to delve deeper in our techniques.
Roxanne Phillips: Describe your artistic process/technique.
Aric Samm: My technique involves finding a subject of inspiration (books, photographs, folk lore) and drawing from some of my favorite artist's styles to make a piece.
RP: What is the biggest point of inspiration for your artwork?
AS: For Alice and the Jabberwocky [the work featured in Art Saint Louis' "Storytellers" ehxibit], the layout is from an old wood carving of St. George and the Dragon. Alice herself was dressed as a Landsknetch giving me a bright color pallette with which to work.
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| Aric Samm. “Elder.” 2018. Watercolor on Cold Press Paper, 9”x11”. Sold. Prints available. |
RP: What do you find most challenging/rewarding about the creative process?
AS: The time involved is very challenging. My reward is satisfying myself or my patron.
RP: What was it that first prompted your career/activity as an artist?
AS: I returned from Iraq in 2006; I had not painted or drawn since then. My wife got me back into being creative in 2018 and since then we decided to start selling our work before our house fills up.
RP: What is it about your preferred medium that you enjoy the most?
AS: Watercolor is vivid, and I like how I can shape and manipulate my lighting and lines with it.
RP: What is it that you are most eager to convey through your art/ how do you want the viewer to receive or interpret or your art?
AS: I just like having my thoughts on paper for people to see.
RP: What is the best thing about St. Louis for your art practice?
AS: I am not an established artist anywhere yet, so the best thing is it's home.
RP: Is there another artist that has influenced your art and how?
AS: Alex Ross, Norman Rockwell, Hans Giger, Lioba Bruckner, and Yoshitaka Amano are my inspirations. My goal is to be as proficient as they are. I respect their work and the impact they've made in the art world.
AS: The time involved is very challenging. My reward is satisfying myself or my patron.
RP: What was it that first prompted your career/activity as an artist?
AS: I returned from Iraq in 2006; I had not painted or drawn since then. My wife got me back into being creative in 2018 and since then we decided to start selling our work before our house fills up.
RP: What is it about your preferred medium that you enjoy the most?
AS: Watercolor is vivid, and I like how I can shape and manipulate my lighting and lines with it.
RP: What is it that you are most eager to convey through your art/ how do you want the viewer to receive or interpret or your art?
AS: I just like having my thoughts on paper for people to see.
RP: What is the best thing about St. Louis for your art practice?
AS: I am not an established artist anywhere yet, so the best thing is it's home.
RP: Is there another artist that has influenced your art and how?
AS: Alex Ross, Norman Rockwell, Hans Giger, Lioba Bruckner, and Yoshitaka Amano are my inspirations. My goal is to be as proficient as they are. I respect their work and the impact they've made in the art world.
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| Aric Samm. “Pisces.” 2019. Watercolor on Hot Press Paper, 9”x11”. $100. |
RP: When did you begin to know what your art is about?
AS: When I started to make more than just stick figures and copy comic books as a kid, I knew that my art was going somewhere. I make what I like.
RP: What is the biggest challenge with being an artist and juggling all life throws at you?
AS: The biggest challenge is that there's not enough hours in the day.
RP: What do you find most challenging/rewarding about the creative process?
AS: The perfect outcome is the biggest challenge. I get a little impatient with its perfect finish. It takes a lot of time to get a piece where I'm happy with it.
RP: What qualities attract you to other artist pieces?
AS: I appreciate all of my peers' work, especially when it wells up from emotion or displays action.
AS: When I started to make more than just stick figures and copy comic books as a kid, I knew that my art was going somewhere. I make what I like.
RP: What is the biggest challenge with being an artist and juggling all life throws at you?
AS: The biggest challenge is that there's not enough hours in the day.
RP: What do you find most challenging/rewarding about the creative process?
AS: The perfect outcome is the biggest challenge. I get a little impatient with its perfect finish. It takes a lot of time to get a piece where I'm happy with it.
RP: What qualities attract you to other artist pieces?
AS: I appreciate all of my peers' work, especially when it wells up from emotion or displays action.
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| Aric Samm. “Libra.” 2019. Mixed Media on Hot Press Paper, 9”x11.” $100. |
RP: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin creating?
AS: I prefer working when the sun is down. I always have. During the day I prep canvas or clean up the work space while researching reference materials.
RP: Do you think that creativity involves putting your heart and soul into your work? Or is it more like letting your mind flow freely to witness the surprising results of your actions?
AS: I think both. It depends on the artist and also the medium.
RP: Best advice you were ever given?
AS: Practice, practice, practice, and find artists to whom you can aspire.
AS: I prefer working when the sun is down. I always have. During the day I prep canvas or clean up the work space while researching reference materials.
RP: Do you think that creativity involves putting your heart and soul into your work? Or is it more like letting your mind flow freely to witness the surprising results of your actions?
AS: I think both. It depends on the artist and also the medium.
RP: Best advice you were ever given?
AS: Practice, practice, practice, and find artists to whom you can aspire.
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| Belleville, IL-based artist Aric Samm (right) with his family. |
MIKE BANNES
About the artist: I studied English | Literature | Graphic Communication in college, and have worked as a designer, art director, carpenter, truck driver and fabricator for the past 30 years. I enjoy working with my hands and building things, as I'm obsessed with craft and my attention to detail is crazy at times. I am extremely grateful for my wife, Kathy, and my daughters Nora and Hope; they are strong, beautiful women and have truly saved my life. I spend time making things because I need to–building things helps me to live in a more aware manner, and that process brings me joy. I'm a passionate fly fisherman, and I find old Ford Broncos beautiful.
As a designer, I’m constantly striving to make a connection or interaction in the simplest, most efficient way possible, and to do so without sacrificing beauty. Simply put, I strive to make beautiful things that function—visually appealing stuff that works. As a maker I am not so concerned with the concept of funcitonality. But there certainly is intent. I believe that beauty exists in the ‘ordinary,’ that it is hidden in plain sight, all around us, all the time. My work, at its core, is an effort to get people to see-to ‘see harder’ with different eyes. It’s an effort to wash away the opacity that day in-day out existence so effectively imposes. It’s an effort to move beyond the unconsciousness that routine so subtly and completely thrusts upon us. Recently my work reflects my thinking on effects of technology upon humanity, self-reliance, spirituality, faith, and awe. I’m trying to stop looking at things and not really seeing them.
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| Featured in “Storytellers” exhibit at Art Saint Louis: Mike Bannes. “nowonder:thefutureisadirtygreyishyellowishcolor.” 2019. Acrylic, Branches, Butterflies, Cell Phone on Canvas, 48”x30”. $975. Artist’s statement: “Recently I’ve been thinking about how technology has transformed the way we live, about self-reliance and spirituality, and about the connections between these things. More specifically, my work has been influenced by people, for whom the smartphone has been ubiquitous, and how profoundly different they are than me and my generation. I believe there is. And will be. Serious fallout.” |
Roxanne Phillips: What is the biggest point of inspiration for your artwork?
Mike Bannes: The natural world. When I can go outside and be aware enough to truly see things, I’m inspired. This may sound cheesy or really pretentious, but it’s true. I believe beauty exists in so many things that we’ve been conditioned to view as so ‘ordinary’ that we truly don‘t see them, and of course, their beauty. It’s difficult for me to remain aware and really present, but when I can pull this off, I see beauty hidden in plain sight, all around me.
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| St. Louis-based artist Mike Bannes' studio. |
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| Mike Bannes' art studio. |
RP: What is it that you are most eager to convey through your art/ how do you want the viewer to receive or interpret or your art?
MB: Honestly, I want people to look at what I’ve made and find beauty in it; I’d like them to think of something along the lines of: “wow, I’d like to have that in my space so I could look at it often.” If it causes them think about something (the emotion of awe has healing properties), or consider something in a new way, that’s gravy. I think really great art does that: it does something to the viewer, AND it is beautiful to behold. But that’s not to discount something that’s just cool to look at. I think we’ve all suffered long enough from all the manufactured ‘this piece is saying X’ arty bullshit.
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| Artist Mike Bannes' St. Louis studio. |
RP: Best advice you were ever given?
MB: “Hide a bit of yourself in all that you do, and do that with kindness.”
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Roxanne Phillips
is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned
a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St.
Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas.
Roxanne is an adjunct art instructor at Washington University in
St. Louis and has worked with Art Saint Louis
since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer. From 2018-2020
she was Master Printer for Pele Prints. Her works have been featured in
numerous exhibitions
throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads
Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is
currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as
exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is
past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.
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