About Me
Hello!
I'm Sam.
I am a native Californian artist who grew up and still reside in the small town of Carmel-By-The Sea where my great grandfather laid down our family roots in 1907 after leaving San Francisco in 1906 having endured the 1906 earthquake.
Growing up, I was always surrounded by creativity, mainly influenced by my mother. I didn't need art school... I had her.
In the early days I mostly worked large scale abstract acrylic paintings that were heavily influenced by the pop art masters Haring, Warhol and Basquiat. I sold my work at shows at local coffee shops and restaurants as well as occasional gallery shows. I then progressed into working with charcoal for a short time. In 2007, I started exploring the medium of graffiti stencil art. I began to take notice of the truly creative and artistic ways people were expressing themselves throughout urban landscapes. The sides of trains, the walls of alleyways, etc. Expressive artwork that can be traced back to the beginning of humans living in caves.
I began by making creative and fun stickers to slap around town. I chose and have stuck with the artist's name thefactory101. The Factory reference is a nod to Andy Warhol's Factory where the 101 refers to the main highway that runs through my native state of California. During the sticker making, I began to start crafting stencils from photographs. From day one I have chosen subject matter that is personal to me, whether its the occasional famous person to sea creatures that reside in the ocean down the street from my house as well as pop icons that are familiar to just about everyone. I want my work to be light and fun. Life is hard enough.... There is plenty I could say politically through my work, but whenever I get the notion, it makes the me start to feel heavy and that's not why I make art. I just want to have fun and make people smile.
The Proccess
