We recently connected with Sam Pletcher and have shared our conversation below.

Sam , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I love being an artist. It’s one of my favorite parts of being human! The way we visually process and then create art from our own experiences is endlessly fascinating to me. If I could study that forever, I think I’d be pretty content. But no one has that kind of time! So the fascination makes for great fuel and creative energy.

In the past, I have had a regular job; I worked in an office as a full time receptionist. My daily workload was extremely mundane so I spent most of my time pretending I wasn’t dedicating all of my efforts drawing on post it notes and on my computer in Microsoft paint. That’s how I know that even when I’m not working full time on art, my brain can’t help but spill the art out from within myself. Making art is an integral part of how I function in the world.

Sam , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Sam Pletcher and I am an artist! Most of my life was spent in the Midwest but I have been residing on the West Coast for a good number of years. My art ranges from one of a kind hand-painted shirts to digitally illustrated prints to patches with hand sewn sequins. I think the best way to approach art is from the mindset of a very curious and eager beginner, by playing around and wildly chasing down ideas and focusing on the process more so than the outcome. When a medium starts to feel stale, give it a break and try something new! You can always come back and explore more with a fresh outlook. It’s so important to me to keep my art practice sacred, in that way. I don’t ever want to turn it into a chore and I am very proud of the boundaries I’ve established with myself!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

One thing I’ve really had to overcome is the stereotype of artists and creatives “being lazy” because they don’t ascribe to the typical work schedule or because the work can look very different from “normal” jobs.

I am the first person in my family to pursue a career within the creative industries and that did come with obstacles. A good chunk of my family are engineers, a very pragmatic and logical trade, and it was a big learning point for many, that me, an inquisitive and hard worker like them, would want to be an artist. But what they didn’t realize then, is that working as an artist demands diligence, constant problem solving and more hours than a regular office job. You need to be the worker, the boss, the publicist, the administrator, the engineer, etc. It doesn’t just require you to make art, as lovely as that would be.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Curiosity is number one. There’s an ever growing list of artistic mediums to try in the world, so that fact alone is enough to start getting some creative thoughts brewing.

Also my curiosity is what motivates me to seek out new experiences, which in turn, causes me to need to visually process those new experiences, which in turn, becomes doodles in my sketchbook or paint strokes on a canvas. So it’s a sort of self-sustaining system, as long as my curiosity stays alive!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sampletcher.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sampletchergoods
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/sampletcher