Sam Gallegos is primarily an abstract painter who currently works in her home studio, located in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has spent the majority of her life studying about art, creating art, teaching art, and mentoring up and coming Art Teachers.

After taking foundations courses for eight years in both High School and College, Sam received her BA in Art. In order to fulfill her dream of becoming an Art Teacher, an additional year of college in the Teacher Education program was necessary. Sam went on to teach in a High School Art Department in Loveland, Colorado. She taught multiple courses including: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture and Ceramics, Jewelry, AP Studio Art, and AP Art History.

As an Art Teacher and Head of the Department, it was Sam’s goal to provide as many opportunities as possible for her students. Equally important, Sam wanted to provide a safe place for her students to grow and develop critical and creative thinking skills that could be applied to any career pathway. Developing relationships with students and planning high level assignments focused on technique, problem solving, and creativity, were the most rewarding parts of the job. Unfortunately, the amount of time and energy that it took to introduce and develop curriculum for three new classes(Jewelry, AP Art History, and AP Studio Art), led Sam to a feeling of complete burn out. When her first child was born, this seemed like a natural time to take a break from the teaching part of her art career.

In 2015, after taking some time off to raise her two boys, Sam came back to teaching in the form of mentoring the next generation of Art Teachers through Colorado State University. This allowed her to share her passion for both art and teaching. In 2018, Sam began a studio practice in addition to her mentoring job. It was slow going at first, but in 2019 she committed to a daily studio practice.

Abstract art appealed to Sam from a young age and continues to afford her the freedom that she craves as an artist. It is very much the process of creating, listening to the work and solving problems, that allows her paintings to develop organically and intuitively. You can feel a sense of energy and emotion imbued in her paintings. Sam’s work is very colorful and alive as can be seen in the surface textures, marks, and gestural brushstrokes. Her bodies of work are developed based on a theme and her work on paper is purely experimental in nature. There is overlap in terms of color and mark-making as they are created in tandem. Sam often works on 10-15 paintings at a time thus allowing the work to flow and evolve naturally rather than ever feeling forced.

In 2022, Sam held her first solo show after creating a solid body of work spanning from 2021 and 2022. Currently, she is focused on applying to juried shows, looking for venues where she can exhibit her work, and continuing her daily studio practice.