Get to Know Artist Samantha McLennan
- Samantha McLennan
- Jan 31, 2024
- 5 min read
Welcome to my messy studio! Get to know me, Samantha McLennan, as an artist and person.
Some artists are able to keep a tidy studio. They fill it with beige canvas and beautiful empty vases, and have everything so neatly laid out that a magazine crew could come in on a random Wednesday and everything would be photo ready. That is not my studio. Every three months or so my studio gets deep cleaned and organized, but even at its peak organizational state it still is a reflection of controlled chaos. There are jars, recycling, paint, posters, lots of hanging dried plants, brushes, and vintage furniture to be repaired everywhere. The longer you’re in my studio the more there is to look at and notice, which is how I like it. My Dad once said my studio was filled with ‘inspirations and oddities’ and I’ve loved that description since.
As part of trying to get my baby bird of a business off the ground it was recommended to me that I start a monthly blog. I laughed but they were serious. I didn’t think blogs were relevant in 2024. Blogs to me were a 2007 dichotomy of either an angsty college student ranting about society or a 30 something travelling the world after their premature divorce writing about the strange birds they saw. Apparently I was wrong, so here we are. Luckily I enjoy writing and have lots of topics I can go on about, and I have been informed that I can use conversational language while writing it so bonus for me because that’s my style. For today this first ever blog post, it’s going to be an introduction of myself and little bits of rambling and ruminations. So if that sounds fun to you, carry on reading my friend.
My name is Samantha, but most people call me Sam or Sammy. I am twenty nine and I am excited to turn thirty in June. I have a baby face and I will absolutely get pleasure when people inevitably ask my age and I am able to answer that I am in my thirties. I was a teacher from 2017 to 2021. I taught at rural and high risk schools, I also taught elementary school during the COVID pandemic. I love teaching but I found out quickly that I couldn’t handle the stress and politics of education, and this led to a quick and fiery burn out. I went back to school to learn how to do graphic design, which had always been an interest of mine. I’m pretty sure I’ve been an artist since birth, but at the very least since I could talk and hold a pencil. I'm a high functioning neurodivergent person, I have major depressive disorder, anxiety, and most likely autism although I haven't wanted to do the official testing for it. I have been in therapy for ten years now and am a huge advocate for it to everyone I know. I have a handful of chronic illnesses including endometriosis, PCOS, and inflammatory arthritis. I am a firm believer that you aren’t in charge of the cards you’re dealt in life but you can control your attitude about it. I am married to my high school sweetheart. We have been together since 2011, and we have a big, fluffy, black dog named Edison. I live in Alberta, Canada where my husband and I were lucky enough to buy a funky little old house built in the 70s which has rarely been updated since. It seriously has a decommissioned rock wall fountain cemented to a basement wall. Our home has a huge backyard that I love to garden in, and in the past three years I’ve gotten really into seed collecting, processing, and replanting in said garden.
The turning of the new year seemed like an ideal time to start a blog. Although from being in school and working in schools for so much of my life in my head a new year starts in September. It's the middle of winter in Canada in January and it’s always felt like a weird time for anything “new”. January is frigid, often grey and it feels like a time to hibernate and reflect, not a time to start new things. Spring is the time for cleaning and clearing and planting new things and opening windows to let new air in. In January most things are sleeping or sleepy here. The plants, the animals, and the water all hunker down for the cold months. Regardless, I have always felt that fall and winter are for writing and spring and summer are for painting and visual arts. I love poetry and short story writing. Being huddled up in cozy clothes, tea, and a muffled snowy world outside is a great writing headspace. So here we are, near the end of my first blog post written during a negative 50 celsius (-58F) cold snap in what is conventionally our new year.
I’d like to finish off this first post by chatting about some of my goals for this blog for 2024. I’d like to make it at least a little bit accessible so I am going to try to record myself reading through each blog post to provide an audio version. Have I figured out how to do that or share that yet? No. I am confident I will figure it out over the next year though. I am hoping to start by posting once a month. I’m currently happy with a casual and conversational tone for these posts and maybe that will change, maybe it will not. When I discuss different art movements and topics I want a cozy passion to come through this writing, not a stuffy or snobby fine art voice. I want you to feel like you’re out for coffee with me and I am excitedly nerding out about something, not like a university lecture (which I loved, but it’s not the vibe here). I am going for a blog that teeters on the edge of educational and epilogue. This is a short blog entry for my first try, but I will aim for a bit longer than this throughout the year. I have some ideas of topics I’d love to cover that range from fine art and design topics to some general interests in the art and design world and maybe the occasional wild card topic. Some of these could include talking about how cool terraskin paper is, explaining what photo restoration is and why I love it, highlighting other artists that are really cool, or covering some of my favourite art movements like the arts and crafts movement with William Morris or the botanical arts craze in the 1700’s. If you’re choosing to join me, thanks for being here. I hope that you leave feeling both cozy and informed about interesting things in the fine art and design world.
Thanks for reading. Be curious and kind.
- Sam
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