Samantha Maureen Llanes Choi
Work Details
🛒 Artwork for Sale · $950-$1600 →About This Work
These five works under “The Gardens of Heart” encompass various moments in nature, entwined with reflections on my personal life while working in Jersey City.
My first painting, “Unity Veil”, is a design I used on my wedding veil for the Filipino Ceremony portion of my wedding. As a Filipino daughter marrying the son of Koreans, I wanted to embroider designs from both our families’ cultures. The design depicts various animal and nature motifs from both families’ sides for good fortune.
My second painting, “Butterflies” depicts two people floating on water amidst pops of color from flower – highlighting the feeling of butterflies people get when falling in love.
My third painting, “Pampanga”, is taken from my mother’s province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. I grew up visiting my mom’s home in Pampanga and was always amazed by how nature was so effortlessly overgrown and intertwined with both the village and the city. While the colors didn’t look like this in real life, I remember feeling this way when I’d visit.
My fourth painting, “Scenery Treehouse”, refers to my job as the Scenery Designer for Educational Arts Team’s Camp Liberty Plays. I’ve being creating set designs since 2012 and met so many wonderful amazing young people through our program. While the generations of kids change and develop each year, there’s a comfort knowing they all experience the same wonders of creating all these different worlds from scratch.
My 5th painting, “Stars in the Grass”, is a collection of green grass -tinted pastel colored stars across a canvas. Growing up as a kid, I didn’t have a lot of access to playing on grass or seeing stars. I remember my first time really laying in grass with my friends in 8th grade, we were talking about how whenever we could visit the Philippines, it was always easy to see stars there since there wasn’t as much light pollution. Someone said finally knowing what it’s like to lay on grass felt like laying on stars, and I thought it was just a random thing to say at the time. It stuck with me though, and from that came this idea to paint as many green stars as I could.
Artist Bio
Sam is a Filipino-American illustrator and designer, with a BFA in Animation from New York’s School of Visual Arts. With her expertise in interweaving stories through her draftwork, she uses the same techniques to communicate different ideas & skills for young people in schools. Sam started as a Junior Counselor at Educational Arts Team’s Camp Liberty, eventually moving on to become their Designer for 10+ years and directing plays. She is currently one of the Educational Arts Team's teaching artists, and her background in animation brings a sense of visual storytelling to the Educational Arts Team’s literacy programs and theatre workshops. Outside of the organization, Sam works as a professional Illustrator under Sammakesamess creating personal digital paintings for her clients – with experience in restaurant graphics, product development, and concept art.
Mediums
Painting, Digital