A World of Our Own

Carol Sams

Memphis,TN

Carol Sams was Born, 1952, Knoxville Tennessee

She graduated from University of Tennessee Knoxville, with a BFA in Art History, Communication Design and Painting

Having worked many years as an illustrator for Richards Medical Co., (now Smith&Nephew); time would show the influence of this discipline in many of her works, especially her abstract collections.

Starting in the early 90's Carol began to experience a great audience through various gallery representation in Illinois, Missouri and Memphis.

Although, much of her work from the 80’s to late 90’s is visually appealing, she did not leave behind her root studies with Walter Stevens, and Carl Subllett. These accomplished, highly published Watercolorists, Professors from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, became Carol’s mentors.

Sams ongoing pursuit of new ideas and different Methodologies, through continuous studies, travel and life experiences has landed her reviews in various publications including "Artists of Southwestern United States, Southern Living, and The Commercial Appeal.

Her works are collected by many prominent Memphians and are part public and corporate collections such as Leer Corporation, Detroit, MI, Cranbrook Institute of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, Smith & Nephew Richards, Memphis, TN; Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO.

Notable exhibitions inlude "Trees” ANFA, Memphis, TN "Plein-Air" Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, TN “A Woman’s Collective Group Show” ANF Architects

“A Horse, A Tree, A Swamp” The Levy Gallery

Carols works and lives in Memphis, TN

Be You, may I remind you, everything is fixable including you. Be You. I use this phrase “be you” because… had I not been reminded, I might have gone on forever using “be like others” as the mirror of my success and failures

Many years passed before I understood “Perfectionism” for what it truly was. I ask the question…If “being you” as only you can be, is the undisputed origin, and is the place from which you begin all work, why not accept its authority?

Creation is flawed…Discovery is fruit of its error.

“I understand my studio practice and my life to be as one linked experience. My instinctual willingness to experiment with method and material defines my work.” With this core spirit of inquiry, driven by curiosity and desire to learn; I select to engage the mind first.

In my work…

…I romanticize memories of growing up in East Tennessee listening to my family’s storied past as told by my father, a fifth son, of a sixth son, of three generations of Scotch-Irish and German dairy farmers.

I become a trusted steward of mountain ways and beliefs, understanding them to be the wisdom of lives well lived.

…I accept my soul’s shape as a compliment from the past, as it is the place where I began, and will be the place I begin once more.

…I allow curiosity to visit the intersection of history and myth

Carol Sams Schreiber 2023

…I’m ‘a Southerner