When I first saw Sam’s art it made me happy. It was her erotic illustrations and watercolour work. Some erotic art is dark, Adult, and very much behind-closed-doors. This is funny and light and free and: like mowing your front lawn naked before the afternoon orgy. Fun. I had to know who made this wonderful work and why.
On Saturday morning we meet at Boxcar Social for a coffee. Sam is in her final year at OCAD University in the Department of Drawing and Painting. She started school remotely during the pandemic. She attended an art high school. Her older sister was into dance, and she just kinda followed her into the arts. She wasn’t really into anything else, and she had the focus to sit and practice drawing for long stretches of time.
Her father would take her on long drives through the city and when they passed the colourful pillars of the OCAD building on McCaul St, she knew that’s where she had to be.
I asked Sam when she actually started making work. Was there a moment when she became aware of trying to make art, to work on a craft. It was receiving a camera as a gift. She started taking documentary pictures of everything. About this time her Grandma would take her on trips. They would fly to Dubai, or London, or New York. They would explore and she would be taking pictures along the way.
Sam would often wonder the isles of BMV books, immersing herself in art. She also works with acrylic paint and does printmaking.
At a distance, the painting of the beach is unassuming and sunny. There are small illustration of people all over: walking, playing, tanning, etc. Getting closer to the work, and looking closer reveals a complex landscape of happy sexual escapades. “I love Where’s Waldo, it’s a prime memory”. Sam wanted to “make it my own, make it sexual – the humour of it, the shock value, nostalgia”. When you draw the people really small, people have to lean in to see what’s going on, it draws them into the peice.
Who are these people? It’s people she knows, or people she’s drawn from memory. Some of the people and scenes are scenes she’s seen in real life while working at Oasis Aqualounge, the sex club.
“Oasis intrigued me”. “I’m a sexual being, I was sexual as a kid” even.”I had been a few times as a guest when I was 19. I had previously worked as a server at a pub”. She sent them a resume. She started working there the following year.
So it was OCAD classes during the day, night shifts at Oasis. The club has a pool, hot tub, sauna —various rooms and levels —apparatus of all sorts, theme nights, special events. It’s a sex-positive place, security and consent create a structure for the people inside exploring themselves (and others). It’s idyllic —much like Sam’s sexual work.
The art work is a way to “reclaim control of my sexuality. Expressing, learning what I am”.
This year she started doing self portraits every day. “Doing art every day, documenting my life” —in the background, the Alabama Shakes or Lumineers live performances playing on loop from the KEXP YouTube channel. That, or the Thong Song.
The End.
*** You can find Sam on Instagram
*** You can find the author on Instagram