About Sam

Born in the Seattle area on May 19, 1958, Sam White started drawing in the 2nd grade with friends from school. The boys would copy comics from the paper, such as Peanuts, Popeye, and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Sam also made frequent visits to a lady in the "projects" in south Seattle. Together they would do crafts, painting, and drawing. From there White moved into creating his own outlines and filling them with intense colors. This bold and creative use of color provided an outlet for strong emotion, and an escape from the devastating realities of an abusive and broken family life. When he was placed in foster care at the age of 12, White turned to his foster family for support for his art. "They knew it was what would help me graduate," White remembers. "I might have flunked out without it. I took all these art classes and got A's, and that balanced out the rest of my GPA." White remained in foster care until he graduated from high school. In high school White's art teacher, Al Kollar, saw what he had to offer and gave him the support that allowed his personal vision to blossom. White began experimenting with drawing faces in an abstract, impressionistic style.

After this burst of creativity, other facets of White's life took precedence over art. Despite being accepted at the prestigious Cornish School Of Art, he joined the Air Force, spending five years in the Philippines and then being sent to Desert Storm. When that military operation ended White was transferred in 1989 to Fairchild Air Force Base, where he remained until he left the Air Force in 1991. White worked in plumbing for years before running into a high school classmate again at a class reunion; He told White that he'd thought he would be doing something with his art. That got White thinking and re-evaluating, and soon his wife was having to clear canvases and paints off the kitchen table. She was relieved when Sam rented his art studio.

White began working with oil pastels and acrylics, as well as pen-and-ink drawings and sculpture. He also began showing his work at this time. Despite being largely uneducated in the terminology, concepts, and history of art, White has a sense of color and composition that evoke satisfaction in the viewer. He sites Picasso, Van Gogh, and Matisse as influences. It has been said that his art is reminiscent of the fauvist style of the early 20th century; if so it is entirely inadvertent, as Sam simply paints what he feels. "My paintings come directly out of my feelings," he explains. "I don't really plan anything. After stretching and priming a canvas, I just take a permanent black marker and start outlining faces." White allows his work to pour out of his unconscious in an unaffected way. The lack of pretense in his work contributes to its emotional impact, as the images and colors have primitive intensity. White enjoys creating his own large canvases, which give him scope for the expanse of his emotional expression.