Senior Spotlight: Bahamian Painter Samantha Sawyer
Written by Trinity Ray. Photos by Michaela Lynch.
Growing up on the teeny-tiny Abaco islands in the Bahamas, Samantha Sawyer has painted her whole life. She started by doodling and drawing in her sketchbook as a kid and gradually learned more about painting along the way.
One of her high school teachers, Lorie Thompson, introduced her to art. Sawyer joined the Junkanoo club, where they created costumes for the Bahamian festival, Junkanoo, using cardboard decorated with crepe paper, feathers, and jewels. This became a gateway to her art education.
In 2019, Hurricane Dorian hit Sawyer’s hometown and changed the trajectory of her life. Most of her family’s homes were destroyed, her school was destroyed, and her life had been uprooted. Sawyer moved to Florida with her mom and brother and continued to finish high school there.
After moving, Sawyer created an emotionally driven body of work about the hurricane. Painting moved from a hobby to a potential career as she realized she could see herself pursuing art in college. A teacher from her high school in Florida, Sarah Rojo, guided her to SCAD.
When COVID-19 hit Sawyer went back home to the Bahamas. She finished high school online and came back to Florida for graduation. After applying and being accepted to SCAD she did her first year of studies online. Sawyer moved to Savannah, Ga after the pandemic, and started her second year doing in-person classes.
As a painting major with a minor in business, Sawyer has dreams to run her own show. Currently, she runs a small business selling prints, stickers, supplying her work to small businesses in her hometown, participating in art shows back home, doing commission work and running a Redbubble shop.
“I feel like I’ve become a carpenter at times,” Sawyer says. SCAD has helped her go into all mediums and do more than just painting. Learning how to stretch a canvas, do laser cutting and build the framework to hang her art took Sawyer from working on already prepped canvas, to being able to create everything herself from prep to finish.
This fall, in Senior Studio I, she worked on a body of work influenced by memories of growing up in the Bahamas. She bounced from the influences of the environment she grew up around to the worries she has about what an influx in tourism, overfishing and other factors will bring to the future of the environment.
“Hold Fast” is a diptych of two large, 48×48 canvases. Sawyer created this piece using found objects from her hometown, including a net and local fabrics, which she has hand-sewn onto the canvas. She also included hints of previous work in this piece. She created three large stamp works: “Citrus Scales,” “Mama’s Yard,” and “The Last Conch.” Originally, two of these were laser-cut paper, and one was laser-cut wood. She printed these works onto fabric and then sewed them into this piece.
This was a turning point project for her as it was one of the first times she had implemented a lot of mixed media into her work. She is primarily a painter and has worked on a lot of different substrates such as paper, wood and canvas. Sawyer said that the net was particularly challenging to work with and attach to the painting, as she had difficulties making it look intentional. Creating this piece has encouraged her to work with more found objects in the future, as she now plans to do more mixed media work.
Her current plans for Senior Studio II are unknown, but it will likely be a continuation of the themes she is working with in this current Senior Studio I.
Recently, during SCAD’s Fine Arts Showcase, Sawyer opened her studio (shared with another painting major) and welcomed visitors into her creative space. She said it was amazing to watch everyone view her work and speak on how it made them feel. More experienced artists and gallerists were there to give critique. As vulnerable as it is to open the studio up to people when there are unfinished works in there, it is great to get feedback from other students, community members, and industry professionals. Sawyer says, “It was definitely a ‘we’re seniors’ moment.”
Sawyer’s ultimate dream is to have her own half studio, half storefront, back in the Bahamas. She would like to sell products, prints, maybe fabrics and host community-oriented studio events. Leading up to this goal, she has a few clients lined up for commission work after graduation. She also would love to create a body of work for a possible solo show in her hometown, and at some point, participate in a residency as well.
See more from your new favorite painter here!
https://www.samanthanoellesawyer.com
Trinity is a Writing major with a minor in Chinese Language and Cultural Studies. She spends her time outside of District doing the same thing she does while being a copy editor—correcting students’ writing. While journalism is her thing at District, her specialty is writing romance, fantasy, and stories about children. Aside from being an English nerd, Trinity enjoys being a nerd for video games, anime, and motorsports.
