HI AND WELCOME – My name is Sam and I’m a mixed media artist – with a huge love for stories and story telling in all its forms…at the moment I live on the East Coast of England.
My mixed media sculptures and art dolls combine all my creative urges …costume, theatre, sculpting, story telling, creating, tinkering…playing… Each figure is entirely made by me, by hand, using either clay or fabrics over a wire armature ( – sometimes both, but always with clay heads), and paint, wood, found objects, various textiles and textile techniques, and a sprinkling of imagination to depict the characters I have met, seen, dreamt of or imagined – little people with large personalities … all one of a kind and unique individuals… much like us larger people. Each character has their own story.
Please click on the links at the top of the page to come exploring….
Exhibitions
CACTUS Gallery LA- Doll Makers V11, Folktales. September 2020
The Inverarity Gallery– ‘A’ is for apple exhibition – Nov. 2019
Penumbra Gallery (Portugal) – Superstition exhibition – Sept. 2019
The Inverarity Gallery – Spectral and Sepia exhibition – oct- 2018
Dolls art exhibition, the Old Jaffa Museum of Antiquities, Tel Aviv, Israel march – july 2014
oct – nov 2013 Cursley and Bond, Folkestone, England darkness descends exhibition
nov and dec 2013 Cursley and Bond, Folkestone, England winter wonderland exhibition
dec 2012 Creative Quarter, Folkestone, England christmas exhibition
Statement
An enormous love for the theatre / cinema and arts – and a disturbing passion for textiles, puppets, masks and costume eventually took her to Central St Martins to study theatre design, specializing in costume.
Her subject matter is heavily influenced by her great love of all forms of story telling, especially fairy tales ( both dark and light), but also costume design, fashion photography, steampunkery, old photographs and stop motion animation -and depicts characters from life or imagination that want to come out to pose! She is happiest when creating things with her hands, listening to music, surrounded by fabrics, ink, paint, clay and their associated smells, mess and potential, and always has a huge smile for creativity and stories and the characters they contain … imaginary or real, on stage, screen, page or pavement. She hopes her work will make you smile too, and inspire you to daydream and imagine the stories surrounding every character on display.
Sam has a wandering gypsy soul that loves to travel, to explore, experience and learn …so she cocoons herself in creativity to still her itchy feet and take the time to exhale…
As a small child she ran off to join the church choir, took dance lessons until her late, late teens and developed a habit of singing ( loudly and badly ) or dancing whenever she was completely alone…she still does this…often! although she’s far too embarrassed to ever admit it. She adores watching other people dancing…lost to the music…in every form of dance…Ballet to street, tap to Futterwaken.
Her first three years of boarding school mainly consisted of planning and carrying out daring escapes to her grandparents home … she was always returned after the weekend with her pet stone.
The absurd, Monty Python, Terry Pratchett’s, hearing children chortling, and Withnail And I always make her giggle.
She loves the works of………………………………………………….
Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Laika, Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaimen, Edward Gorey, Haruki Murakami, Guillermo del toro, Rumi, Boris Vian, everything Brothers Grimm, Gormenghast and childhood-creepy…and too many more things to be able to fit on here!
Education
Colchester institute 1986-88, Art and design BTec national diploma
Chelsea school of art 1988-90, Mural design HND
Central St Martins 1990-1993 Theatre design BA HONS
Early Art works
Mural commission, St Mary’s Hospital, London. 1990
Mural commission, Milbank, London. 1990
Theatre set designs, Seaview players, Brightlingsea. 2000-2005
Designing bags, crafted fabrics and artworks for commissions, craft fairs and Portobello market 1990-2009
Copyrighted, all rights reserved.
Sam Crow Art 
Love the site beautiful x
The beautiful picture ‘Party Dress’ we bought from you at your recent exhibition now has pride of place in our home. The combination of materials and stitches are amazing.
thankyou…………i hope you continue to enjoy it ! x
I am still enjoying it!
you are so talented Sam it is wonderful to see your work take care
thankyou Linda……………..you take care too X
i absolutely love your work – i bought summer love & as you know the man has gone but your picture is forever x
thanks Theresa……………..and huge thanks for all your support and encouragement x
Hi Sam.
I have long admired your outstanding work as I believe you realise. My family and I have a couple of your pieces of which we are very proud. Huge success is just around the corner.
Best wishes.
Ray (and family).
hi Sam
you totally surpassed yourself with your sacred heart picture – i absolutely love it so thank you so much for letting it go
can’t wait to see you in tontine st – i’m liking the jar of jam !
love Theresa
hi theresa….i am so glad you love it and it has gone to such a good home! looking forward to seeing you at the exhibition! the jam jar is one of jereme’s new ones! thankyou for your lovely comment, sam x
oh Sam I am just stunned at your gorgeous art. Having spent 20 odd years ‘sewing ‘ for a living combining it with art I just wish I had time /energy now to do more [not like yours !! ][seeing I now have a superb machine as well as all my old ones.] gosh wish I could give you the boxes of fabrics and bits and bobs I have just languishing in cupboards.
[ps I had to give up due to illness] I can still paint in oils though. not so demanding] cheers Gini.
Hi Gini, thankyou so much for your lovely comment….i don’t get to sew on the machine as much as i would like either – due to illness too – but love it when i do! i looked up your art on red bubble…it’s gorgeous, you can tell by the wonderful use of colours and their textural qualities that you love fabrics and have had a lot to do with them! beautiful!Will go back and have another look now! thankyou , sam.
Wow! Your artwork is amazing and your blog is just lovely! I love your doodles – very detailed and super creative. Following!!!
wow! thank you lots Jess! Big smile!
Out for a little stroll around Folkestone on Sunday with my fiancee and we both stopped abruptly on seeing Mr.Felix Messori in Cursley and Bond….. Fantastic ! I am sure that the shop has been very happy to have him enticing people in to see some more wonders inside…..But,having had a night or two to ponder,I had to return to buy him.He is going to have a little vacation in my Office until Christmas…..Its so difficult to keep him a secret from my beautiful lady….but I know that Felix will be the perfect surprise.I guess it is a little sad to only have Felix,so in the coming months I had better get saving to bring a companion
Hi Andy…that is such a great story…thank you so much for returning for him….it is great to know he is going somewhere where he will be loved…huge smile!
Very interesting work!!!Love the style
thank you xxx big smile xx your cakes look deliciously wonderful xxx
wonderful dolls
thank you xxx Big smile xxx
so interesting to come across this.
fascinating work!
Thank you Rosalina xxx your bellemaisonblog is gorgeous xxx
Ohhh Sam it’s so cool to find you here on WordPress I am so happy! I follow your two websites now! Check my yesterdayafter when you have chance! ❤ Carolina
🙌🙌🙌😊😘😘😘Ooo hello Carolina😊😘😘😘😘Big hugs 😘😘
Yay Sam big hugs back at you! Thank you for the follow I will share our Omega in my next soon post! 😉
You are incredibly gifted and talented. I wish that I had even a little of the creative talent that you have. Love looking at your work! Thanks for visiting my blog and giving my work a like. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much! Your poetry is fabulous! Thank you for visiting and liking my blog too🙌😊😘