Meet Samuel Fleming Lewis | Artists

We had the good fortune of connecting with Samuel Fleming Lewis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Samuel Fleming, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
From an early age I was always drawing or making things. I would look at my mother’s interior decorating magazines and try to copy elements from the rooms that I liked. A new next door neighbor who was a decorator was always changing his home with fresh ideas that further influenced my interest in design. My high school art teacher (Alonzo Davis) and his brother (Dale Davis) owned Brockman Gallery the Los Angeles black owned gallery that exhibited black artists. I was always hanging out at the gallery to help in any way that I could. The gallery gave me exposure to the art of professional black artists. I’ve attended openings of artists who are now very famous during beginnings of their careers in the 1970’s.

I developed passions for both art and interior design. I took college level art classes and attended a vocational Interior design school. I interned with a large modernist architectural firm. When my internship ended I was hired as an interior designer. I worked over thirty years as a commercial interior designer, high end residential interior designer, manual draftsman, freelance custom furniture designer/draftsman before starting my own design partnership Lewis & Kladder. The passion for art never dies I’ve always created art while working as a designer. As of last year I am successfully working full time as an artist.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My professional career as an interior designer didn’t allow me to fully develop as an artist. An artistic passion will never leave you. I was very happy working as a designer when I could actually draw/draft my designs. My architectural drawings were beautiful. So beautiful that I didn’t have a need to create art. I saw no art in computer drafting and refused to learn.

The beginnings of becoming an artist started with using what I had on hand: Architectural Rendering Pencils & Drafting Vellum. I had a collection of African masks and began to draw enlarged mask details in a square format. The drawings were African, minimal and abstract. My design partnership began to take all of my time. I got an idea to do small details of all of the African things I love; masks, textiles, utilitarian objects, and sculpture. I began to make 12 linoleum block prints which became 144 prints. To find myself as an artist I used the 6” prints as a foundation for 24” square drawings, 20” paintings and 48” paintings.

Then came Obama! Wanting to make my own minimal campaign poster the 4th was a hit. I made a collage using the other 3 then with wild abandon I created 27 mixed media collage works in three days all with an Obama image. All 28 were on exhibit twice.

My mixed media, collage works and drawings are influenced by: Africa, architecture, graphic design, interior design, lines, grids, blind contour drawing, pattern, repetition, typography, minimalism, photography. I’ve found my way as an artists and collectors are beginning to see my unique works as something that they want live with.

My original art is on SaatchiArt.com who selected me as one of “22 artists to collect in 2022”.

Products with my art can be found on Society6.Com.

My Palm Springs CA studio/gallery is open by appointment.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We’d Start out at Ernest Coffee (Steps away from my studio.) Great coffee drinks including interesting flavors and a menu their own of one of a kind blended coffee and tea drinks. Excellent baked goods, friendly staff who somehow know exactly what you want if you become a regular, great decor.

Ice Cream Shoppe at the Arrive Hotel, Delicious ice cream any time if day. Excellent selection of flavors and a quirky little shop for souvenirs.

RESTURANTS

La Vallauris
Pomme Frite
The Farm
Jakes
Workshop Kitchen
Johannes
849

BARS

Tailor Shop: Crafted Drinks with herb blends and exotic flavors, dark modern sexy decor, gourmet small plates
Bootlegger Tiki: tiny bar with great modern tiki inspired drinks

ART

Palm Springs Art Museum
The Artists Center, Palm Desert
Backstreet Art District, Palm Springs
Perez Road Art & Design District, Cathedral City
Melissa Morgan Gallery, Palm Desert

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Peninsula Pastries, Palm Springs

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Because I’ve always done things my own way I achieved success in my careers through a combination of self will and determination and the guidance of mentorship. My list includes:

Mrs. Binnie L. Wilkin: The Librarian who came to my 4th grade class to read a story. I later met Binnie when I was a teenage elementary school tutor. She collected original art, culturally enriched me, let me create design experiments in her home and encouraged me throughout my life by being an example.

Alonzo Davis: My Saturdays as teen were often spent at Brockman Gallery getting exposure to Black art and artists.

Jocelyn Muncaster: I first went to intern at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, San Francisco Jocelyn was the mentor who took me under wing and requested that I work on her team. I’ve polished my design and space planning skills with the help of my life long friend.

James Bacchi & Annette Schutz: My first Gallerists who exhibited my African inspired abstract drawings for twenty years

Website: samuelfleminglewisart.com

Instagram: samuel_fleming_lewis

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