SAMMI DOUGHERTY – 2019 Artist of the Year
Sammi Dougherty was born in Toledo, Ohio in June of 1988. She grew up in Sylvania, Ohio and attended Arbor Hills Jr. High and Sylvania Northview High school. It was the quality educators, opportunities and art supplies provided in the Sylvania School systems that allowed her artistic confidence and skillset to develop.
Following her passions onward, she acquired her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Bowling Green State University. For several years Dougherty worked odd jobs to save for her education and for the art show entries that could possibly further her career. All while scattering her artwork around the Northwest Ohio area via galleries, commissioned murals, paintings, and graphic design work. In 2016, she was accepted to multiple Graduate Programs. Sammi is currently completing her Masters in Fine Arts at Radford University in Virginia, while teaching courses there as an Instructor of Records.
In this area of Southwest Virginia, she is surrounded by the very nature that inspires her work. Her process involves hiking to the highest heights and into the deepest, truest wilderness- in order to fully perceive her subject matter. She then paints layers of Watercolors, using Emoto Masaru’s findings on waters reaction to vibration. A second layer is formed through ink and precipitation. The work is laid out in the rain or snow, with seed, inviting birds to interact with each piece. The last layer is drawn with colored pencil. This layer is a reaction to what has occurred in the first layers, to her thoughts in nature, and her ideas on the philosophy of love. Each work is a spiritual journey showing her connection to love and nature, and their connection to each other.
“It is my hope that this experience- this visual language of love through nature, can fill my viewers with the same happiness and completeness that I feel when I create each work.”
Other influences include MC. Escher, Charlie Harper, Remedios Varo, and Vicki Dougherty.
Sammi will be graduating in May 2020 and would like to pursue a career as a Fine Arts Professor. “My students’ reactions to the subject matter and my teaching strategies, has been more validating than I had imagined. Now more than ever, I passionately believe in the physiologically restorative and emotionally therapeutic benefits of art. It is a dream and current project of mine, to open my own teaching and gallery space. I want to employ these unique techniques and spread this ability to self-heal, to observe, and to cultivate one’s confidence.”
For more examples of Sammi's work and to contact her, go to http://www.sammidougherty.org/
