Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Tay
Samantha, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Samantha Tay, I’m an Illustrator from Upstate New York and I’ve been living in Cleveland for the past six years. Like many other artists, my journey began at a very young age. Back in grade school art class was always my favorite part of the day, I was always excited to get into the paints and make funky collages with paper from the scrap bin in the art room. Almost two decades later I’m still the same way; eager to throw ink around & still painting paper for collages. I graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2023 and have been keeping myself busy with work ever since!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Everyone has their challenges in life, I’m no exception. I’m still learning something new every day and still finding myself as an artist and as a person. I have a lot of confidence in myself, which certainly wasn’t always the case, and have found myself surrounded by good people to keep me on track. I believe my confidence is well reflected in my work. For the past couple of years, I’ve been working almost exclusively with different types of ink, I always try to maintain a confident line and produce my work quickly, yet concisely. I used to struggle with my confidence a lot, and looking back at my art when I was at a different time in my life I can pinpoint where I was mentally by the lack of confidence present in my work and therefore, myself. I’ve come a long way, which I’m certainly proud of, but I will always look forward to growing more every single day.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an Illustrator and a Fine Artist, I employ ink in various ways be it with traditional tools, found objects, cleaning supplies, salt, printmaking, etc. Really whatever I can think of that might yield an interesting result; I’m the kind of artist who loves the process and experimentation that comes with the journey of creating a piece. Recently I’ve been drawing bears as well as other animals in different styles and trying out some different techniques with the knowledge I’ve obtained about ink through my experience with the medium.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I honestly can’t say for sure. The art industry is constantly evolving, however, I believe that the industry is in a good place right now and moving in a good direction. There’s a lot of opportunity out there for artists and social media being at an all-time high makes it a lot easier for artists to get their work in front of people, which I am discovering lately.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samtayart/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SamTayArt
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@samtayart
