An art blog by Sam Botkin, a.k.a. Unwiredguy, a.k.a. the artist Saml, and probably a.k.a. a few other names too.
CONTACT by EMAIL: unwiredguy@live.com
CONTACT by EMAIL: unwiredguy@live.com
SCROLL DOWN FOR MOST RECENT ART
SCROLL DOWN FOR LOTS OF ART
and click links to see even more.
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and click links to see even more.
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CLICK THIS LINK to view My Art in PUERTO VALLARTA
CLICK this link to see paintings of Puerto Vallarta, painted in USA.
Links to art pages
Shamliri's Swan
The Moon, The Swan, And Magdalena
CLICK these links to view MORE ART
Before The Beginning
Camila Vs The Ant
Beneath The Full Moon
Yo y Mi Gato
Mama Iguana
The Girl With The Blue Curl
Man-eating Iguana, Playa Los Muertos
Un Día en Playa Los Muertos
El Plato Vacío (The Empty Plate)
Spilt Milk
Artist, After The Fall
Morley's Banjolele
I Dreamed I Saw A Crowd Of People
Tumbling Through
Living, Playa Los Muertos
Hot Day in Costa Rica
Honeymooners
Troubled Dreams
Artist and Model
Last Month's Art Show
ART WAS DISPLAYED DURING NOVEMBER 2010
ART WAS DISPLAYED DURING the Fall of 2010 at the Paseo Studio, Gallery One, 2927 Paseo.
VIEW PHOTOS FROM OCTOBER 2010 ART SHOW AT PASEO STUDIO!
PHOTOS FROM SEPT 3, 2010, ART SHOW PARTY
PHOTOS from August 2010 ART SHOW opening
Flow
Detachment
61
Farm Girls At Night
Breanna and her Big Spotted Dog
Tommy and Two Tanangers
Rock Climbing Beneath a Lizard Sky
Father and Son
La Rubia
SOON TO COME: VIEW PNTGS 4 SALE (NOT Ready yet)
ART FOR SALE
Paseo Art Space Show was held in March 2010.
Sandy's Magic Dog
Illegal Immigrants In Love
Ms Omo
Twee Hawn
What is art?
There are those who think of art as something to decorate the walls (as with certain paintings), or to kill time (as with certain works of literature), or in general to make one's world more lovely. I think otherwise. Art is not by definition pretty, or decorative, or even nice. Art is, by my definition, a dynamic process the result of which is life becomes more meaningful. Art does more than "be created." Art itself creates. Art begins with the artist, who puts the words on paper, or the paint on canvas, or the music and thoughts into a song--whatever the medium may be--but that is not what makes it art. If one walks past a work of art, or hears the sounds of a work of art, the creation process continues. The observer of true art cannot simply smile and move on. With true art, the observer must stop, and think, and react, and change. Art creates a new experience, a new understanding, a new expanded universe. A society that restricts or censors its art is restricting its own growth, its own existence. A person who limits his/her exposure to art is stifling the very nature of that person's life, the process of growing and learning and discovering. Life holds secrets that are never learned by the cautious, by the afraid. By involving oneself in the dynamic process of experiencing true art, one expands reality, one makes the world a bigger and much more meaningful place. Life is art. Art is life. It's the complexity of life (and art) that makes it worth living.
--- Sammy.......3/26/2009
--- Sammy.......3/26/2009
Art by Saml to be publicly displayed...finally!
In March, 2010, the artist will display many of his paintings at the Paseo Art Space gallery, 3022 Paseo, north end of Paseo district in Oklahoma City, (that's near NW 30th Street and Walker), in a solo exhibition tentatively titled "The Evolution of an Artist." At the current time, none of his art has been shown publicly in the US. There are a few of his paintings--small, dust-and-grime-covered, nearly forgotten, from a few years back--hanging at the open-air beachside El Restaurante Malecón in Puerto Vallarta, (it's the tree-encompassed edifice in the painting below), and one nice painting of his strange Pelícanos once hung in the PC Cafe on Olas Altas in Puerto Vallarta--until it was stolen. The show at Paseo Art Space will last the month of March, with a public opening set for the evening of Friday, March 5, 2010.
View from Rosita 303
My Artist Statement for Paseo Show, March 5, 2010
The Evolution of an Artist – A show by the artist Saml
--Sam Botkin
I am an artist who has until this point in life (March 2010) kept my creativity to myself. I taught high school math for a career, during which time I produced art in private to maintain my equilibrium. Since my college days, I made decisions regarding my life that allowed me time and feedom to be creative. It took me 35 years to understand those needs, to realize that in fact I am an artist, a person who must go beyond the limits imposed by reality. I love producing musical art; I have written thousands of pages of novel manuscripts; and I have spread gallons of paint on smooth surfaces, just to see what might result. When I retired from teaching in 2008, I decided to take my paintings public. Sixteen months after that decision, here is my show.
My official creative training is minimal. I did take a couple of art classes at Oberlin College, graduating in 1970, but that effort was dampened by the turmoil of the sixties and the Vietnam war. (I did develop my signature during that period...the artist Saml.) Otherwise, I have trained myself. I was greatly influenced by a humanities course I took in college, where I researched a report on the expressionist art movement of the early 20th century, from Klee and Kandinsky to Picasso. Klee was my favorite, but I was proudest of Picasso. He was a magician with his art, and it was his originality as much as his art that I most admired.
My art itself has evolved greatly over the years. For many years, I painted when the mood struck me, painting images from my dreams, or my imagination, using acrylics beginning in my college years, then switching to oils once my methods matured. Ten years ago, I decided to take my painting more seriously, and for a painfully long time, I worked at "getting better" by reproducing lovely depictions of real life, lots of beach and park and street scenes of the people of Mexico. More recently, I liberated myself from those social demands, and I have now returned to producing images from my fantasies. I have learned a great deal by watching young people create their art: i.e. my seven-year-old niece, a girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter; and in the past few years I have worked hard to develope my innate desire to paint like a child.
I was inspired in this past decade by the art and artists in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, specifically José Marca and Rogelio Dias, two artists who paint confidently with uninhibited expression. I became friends with Marca and gained from him an understanding of the patience required to produce an intended result on canvas. I learned through an intermediary (the gallery owner who displays his art) of the turmoil lived by Dias and expressed in his art, and I found a kinship there that pushed me to exploit my own inner chaos.
It does not bother me if my art sometimes offends. For those who are offended, just shake your head and move along.
--Sam Botkin
I am an artist who has until this point in life (March 2010) kept my creativity to myself. I taught high school math for a career, during which time I produced art in private to maintain my equilibrium. Since my college days, I made decisions regarding my life that allowed me time and feedom to be creative. It took me 35 years to understand those needs, to realize that in fact I am an artist, a person who must go beyond the limits imposed by reality. I love producing musical art; I have written thousands of pages of novel manuscripts; and I have spread gallons of paint on smooth surfaces, just to see what might result. When I retired from teaching in 2008, I decided to take my paintings public. Sixteen months after that decision, here is my show.
My official creative training is minimal. I did take a couple of art classes at Oberlin College, graduating in 1970, but that effort was dampened by the turmoil of the sixties and the Vietnam war. (I did develop my signature during that period...the artist Saml.) Otherwise, I have trained myself. I was greatly influenced by a humanities course I took in college, where I researched a report on the expressionist art movement of the early 20th century, from Klee and Kandinsky to Picasso. Klee was my favorite, but I was proudest of Picasso. He was a magician with his art, and it was his originality as much as his art that I most admired.
My art itself has evolved greatly over the years. For many years, I painted when the mood struck me, painting images from my dreams, or my imagination, using acrylics beginning in my college years, then switching to oils once my methods matured. Ten years ago, I decided to take my painting more seriously, and for a painfully long time, I worked at "getting better" by reproducing lovely depictions of real life, lots of beach and park and street scenes of the people of Mexico. More recently, I liberated myself from those social demands, and I have now returned to producing images from my fantasies. I have learned a great deal by watching young people create their art: i.e. my seven-year-old niece, a girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter; and in the past few years I have worked hard to develope my innate desire to paint like a child.
I was inspired in this past decade by the art and artists in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, specifically José Marca and Rogelio Dias, two artists who paint confidently with uninhibited expression. I became friends with Marca and gained from him an understanding of the patience required to produce an intended result on canvas. I learned through an intermediary (the gallery owner who displays his art) of the turmoil lived by Dias and expressed in his art, and I found a kinship there that pushed me to exploit my own inner chaos.
It does not bother me if my art sometimes offends. For those who are offended, just shake your head and move along.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Hot Day in Costa Rica...
But it's not a hot day here. The chill is slowly moving in, but I'm still in the barn. Finished my sixth October painting today, not bad considering the weather. There's half a chance I'll finish a seventh tomorrow. Did this last painting using Lukas no.5 all the way through, thick faster-drying medium, good stuff I have decided. Just have to know what you're doing or it gums up on you. I've used it before, but this time I took note, planned ahead, and brought out just what I was hoping for. Sure speeds up the process, don't have to wait day after day for the stuff dry. It will be used again.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Autumn falls, the leaves are turning...
And the barn is a great place to be. Lots of work accomplished during September, lots of progress, then a little break to re-roof the garage, and now I'm back in the barn. Getting a bit chilly, not like last year's perfect fall season, but the work is flowing. I found that if I hang a tarp over the doorway at night, the resulting still air is much more manageable than the chilly night breeze, and I can work a couple of hours later. It's a good thing, painting outdoors at night. Even the mosquitos that pestered me all last month are gone now that the season has changed.
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