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, December 24, 2010
Christmas Eve, 2010...
Slow season, for a number of reasons. For one, it's cold. For two, I'm in a healing mode, healing from a detached retina that put me down for the past month or so. For three, I'm regrouping after a very interesting year, but one that has left me still right here. Nice place to be, but it is still right here. I put down my paint brush a couple of months ago to build a studio out back, and that was cool, except for the eye thing that resulted from my tumble off a ladder. The studio waits now, for the season to change, for a final push to put a roof on it and prepare it for my next reality. 20' x 20', with equal sized attic space, will nearly double my living space, make me feel like a serious human being. (We'll see that when it happens.) Preparing for a trip to Mexico, too, expecting much to come from that adventure. But for now, it's Christmas eve, so Merry Christmas to all.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Hmm. I'm still doing.
Another beautiful Fall season. Much going on, in my private world. Got a new studio in the works, a new barn. Concrete to be poured within a few days. Got art. Working at a leisurely pace, but working every day. "Father and Son" done recently, others on the way, seem to keep getting better, too. Maybe. The season, the weather, the lack of encumbrance, all quite nice. If it weren't for my bad back, I'd be rocking full steam. (After three months at Paseo Studio, I was ready to bring it all home, but Jeanene called tonight, wants me to leave some stuff on the walls for another month. I'll leave it up, but I do intend to enjoy the Walk this month, none of that party hosting stuff this time around.)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Life is advancing...
The hot summer is not helping matters, but I suppose life goes forward, summer or not. The future is offering sharp images of quality adventures ahead, with art and discovery leading the way. I am always impressed by the negativity of the world in general but even more impressed with how I have learned to navigate the uglies and maintain my positive and creative disposition!
Whew, did I say that? :)
Whew, did I say that? :)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
April is just about done...
Well, the art show was last month, all good, and this month has been productive, with art, with the garden, with the cardinals nesting in the bush just outside the barn (in full view from where I paint). Several new paintings in the past several weeks, including "Artist and Model," which I like, and which I feel is a big step in a new direction for my art. Cool stuff. I have also made the conversion from Nikes to Dr Marten sandals, and that's cool stuff too. New camera this spring is recording memorable images, and life as artist has fully replaced that old schoolteacher thing. Fully replaced it. FULLY. I am where I belong, finally!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Survived the winter...so far...
It's been the coldest snowiest winter we've had in decades, but it's hinting at Spring. Or maybe I'm just wishing. I'm thinking Art Show more than I'm thinking weather though. March 5, the end of a 16 month wait, not far off at all. I think I'm even going to be prepared once the evening arrives. Wine, song, art, a party for all. (Listening to the new Sade cd...Soldier of Love. Very hot.)
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