Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Aaron Sams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Aaron, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I think I have a lot of ups and downs when I think about my relationship with art and whether or not pursuing art professionally is something I’m totally happy with. Like there are good days and bad days. I don’t regret for a second the time I’ve spent in art school, attending SVA has been the four greatest years of my life and I know I’m going to miss it and want to live it again after I graduate. That being said, there are those bad days when it’s tough to buckle down and work, days when it’s tough to keep drawing and to enjoy drawing. I’ve had a few other jobs outside of being a creative: fast food, retail, and some years in a chemical facility, and on those days when it’s tough to keep drawing I sometimes think about those jobs I used to have and I miss them. I would do my regular job and fantasize all day about the art I would make when I got home, and once I was in the door I would draw until I was too tired to keep going and I loved it. My mind felt so clear and I think there was a balance I had managed to maintain, like a boundary between my work life and my art life. I treated it like a relationship. But when being a creative is your job, your work life IS your art life, and suddenly there’s this pressure surrounding something that you once did all for yourself. Art is a very personal thing, it can feel like an invasion of privacy when it becomes your day job.
But there is also a rush of excitement when you wrap on a professional project. It’s an incredible feeling to point to your name in a published book or to the credits on television and say “That’s me! I did that!” I do it to my parents any chance I get and it’s a great feeling. Being part of a great project or working alongside people you really care about is like a high that you want to keep chasing. On those good days the only things I want to do are make cool things and work on cool projects with my friends and peers. I’m lucky to know and collaborate with so many talented people, and seeing something come to life between you and those people you love is exhilarating.
I think that, overall, it’s a lot of work to maintain a creative career because it does ultimately have those ups and downs and sometimes you aren’t always prepared for them, but when you know how to balance it for you, you’re happy that it’s the choice you made.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Aaron Sams, I’m an Irish-American concept artist with a focus in character design, and I’m a senior animation student at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Originally I’m from Missouri, and before I began my education in art, I worked in a few entry level jobs: fast food and retail mainly, but during the four years before my acceptance to SVA, I worked in a chemical production facility and briefly contemplated attending medical school. Currently I’m working on my thesis project “LACRIMOSA” to complete my BFA, which has so far earned me SVA’s Alumni Society Scholarship Award and also a Thesis Finishing Grant that ranked “LACRIMOSA” as the number one thesis project for Art Direction and Design. I’ve also worked for SVA as a Student Ambassador and a Resident Assistant, and in the Fall of 2023 I was working as an intern at Augenblick Studios.
Outside of work and school, I’m happily engaged and love to write stories with my partner. My personal work is influenced mostly by non-visual media or works that otherwise encourage visualization on our own, such as music, literature, and poetry. Finding inspiration within these forms of media and using them to communicate my design sensibilities in storytelling is an exciting, engaging experience for me. Intimacy, realism, and subtlety in character development is an important part of my work.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Sometimes I think that non-creatives might look down on creative jobs, or view them as “soft” or as if they aren’t difficult, and if you try to describe what your industry is like they don’t seem to believe you. They take the old saying “If you have a job you love then you will never have to work a day in your life.” a little too seriously. Don’t get me wrong, we love what we do, but for most of us, it’s a labor of love that isn’t always sustainable and we’re often taken advantage of. It certainly isn’t easy for some of us and it is work in every sense of the word. There are days when I’m sitting at my computer animating for up to 15 hours straight trying to meet a deadline. I had a herniated disc in my lower back during my sophomore year of college and some days I had sciatica in both of my legs. It was terrifying and it’s no joke that, for some creatives, your job can take a serious toll on your body. In the same vein, it can also take a serious toll on your mental health and well-being if you aren’t careful. Lack of sleep, stress, insecurity, and uncertainty are all things that I’d say weigh heavy on most creatives. Creative jobs don’t always offer much payoff or reward, but I think being able to create freely is something creatives still value a lot, even at our own expense.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I feel like my goals sort of evolve with time. Little landmark achievements that grow into bigger and bigger things. The first goal was being accepted into SVA, then I had goals to finish each year with honors, and now my goal is to finish my thesis film and graduate with something I’ll be excited to show off. I have general ongoing goals to build a stronger portfolio and improve certain areas of my work as well, but right now I’m very driven to finish college because I’d love to start working on a passion project with my partner that we’ve been thinking about since my freshman year. We’re both very into comics and creating a comic together to just get this story out of our brains is something we’re antsy to begin. We’ve been telling ourselves that we’ll start it when I have more time–after I graduate, and that time is finally almost here. Even if we don’t share it with others, we just gotta get the story out, we think about it too much!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aaronsams.squarespace.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-sams/