Come to the Downtown Hillsboro Art Walk every first Tuesday of the month. Downtown businesses come together to celebrate the arts and culture in our community. Of course – art is on display. Best of all, the event is free!
This month’s artist: Sam Fleig
Artist Bio:
Sam was raised in a manual labor environment, where your craftsmanship was your lively hood. Having worked with wood and steel from an early age, he has had time to study industrial techniques for quite a while. Having gotten involved in theatre in his late teens and early twenties, Sam was able to start sculpting entire rooms out of seemingly nowhere. He continued his theatrical studies at Portland Community College Rock Creek’s theatre program, and would then continue his education at the University of Oregon’s theatre program. Throughout this process, he would practice and sharpen not only his woodworking and steel working skills, but he would acquire a taste for small scale sculpture, sewing, and in certain cases, makeup. Being a young and hungry artist who brings a sculptural element to all of his work, he decided to continue his education at Portland State University in the College of Art and Design. He has shown at more local Portland shows such as Gallery 101’s Super Salon, and Super Salon 2. He finds his inspiration through the issues and stories that have been prevalent in his life such as: industry, depression, life struggles, child drug abuse, relaxation, and overconsumption of the digital world.
Every day we are surrounded by many different forms and figures from a wide variety of materials. Particularly, with wood and metal, many of our buildings, parks, and other forms, would not exist as they do with these two key elements used for building and creating. Many of my designs are taken from both the natural and the man-made. Taking into account these elements, I turn pieces into a mixture from both ends of this seemingly polar opposite scale. Even though I am comfortable with wood and metal, this does not stop me from branching out into other materials such as; mass-produced plastics, epoxy resin, glues, paints, cement, brick, and much more.
When recreating a work, or devising my own, I seek out the most priceless objects and steal their identity, so as to change it to my own perspective. Whether a discarded leftover food container or a Faberge egg, I seek to alter the perceived value in its socioeconomic standing and bring it into the light of a more modern scope.
