Artist Statement

Samantha Sailiata

Year Two, Visual Arts,  BCA

‘Artist Statement’

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

 –Thomas Merton.

I first began my practice with the idea and dream of becoming a tattoo artist which emphasises my passion for drawing especially the Samoan Tatau Patterns. As I continued my journey to becoming a tattoo artist I found myself losing focus on that dream and finding an interest in not only drawing but a whole variety of ways to approach the expression of art. Now I base my practice around the communities that surround me, along with the people who were brought up within that community, family members, my culture and my love for children.

I’ve recently been more fascinated with Photography, Photoshop, Illustrator, Drawing and Painting. In my process I take photographs, then take these into photoshop and play around with the images looking at scale change in particular. My practice has been quite large scale, and I have been involved in making many banners over the last couple of years along with Murals.

Through out the past couple of years I have been involved with Murals as well as painting banners for different occasions. I found my passion for painting because of the opportunites that were given to me by the people who have requested a banner or help on a Mural. I feel passionate when I am working on a painting because of the thought that the painting isn’t for me but for other people to enjoy to take in and enjoy.

For my mini task I have been making very large scale drawings of children in my family. I chose to work with children because I love capturing those innocent and pure children embrassing life for what it is without worrying about anything else. I capture those moments by taking photos of them then taking those photos into Photoshop to edit them to debate as to whether I would want it to be just a photo, a Photoshop piece or take it further by painting or drawing their portrait to get more involved with trying to make it an art work where people can see what I see when I first capture the moment.

My motivation and inspiration comes from many artists but the two artists that I have been looking at recently are Daniel Tautua and Opa Othello Fa’asolo. Daniel Tautua’s drawings show family, friends and people in the community. Daniel’s works not only show the identity of one or two people but helps show the identity of the community. Opa Fa’asolo also works within his community and takes pride in the place where he grew up in, working with graffiti and also creating murals in the community as well.

I want to continue working with the idea of capturing priceless moments within a community, my family, culture and children. I want to be able to take the things that I love the most in my life and use them to create my art works, I also want to be able to use my talent as well as my degree to give back which I plan on doing by becoming an art teacher for children.