Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Adler.
Hi Samantha, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My journey has always been intertwined with the world of art. From an early age, I was surrounded by creativity as my Omi and Opa’s home was a secluded vibrant gallery filled with paintings, drawings, sculptures, and artwork from a wide array of artists and styles. My mother’s side of the family, nurtured to me a deep appreciation for nature by taking me to parks and encouraging me to spend time outdoors. Growing up, my mother who is an artist and art therapist, encouraged an environment of active, sensory engagement and creation. She also hosted goddess circles, where women would gather in a mystical, candlelit space in our basement to share stories and connect spiritually. As a young girl, I would quietly sneak downstairs to witness these gatherings, which became an influence on both my practice and lifestyle today. Art became a core part of my education early on. I started with life drawing, moved into more abstract and narrative-based classes, and then during my junior year of high school I attended an art school engaging in film photography, drawing, and painting. I have also been a part of musicals incorporating song performances and dance and brought this in with my family especially with my younger brother Robby, who was born deaf and with various health challenges, where we would perform for our parents. With other deaf family members, sign language and expressive communication became a natural part of my everyday life. I eventually found my way to SCAD in Savannah, GA, enrolling as an illustration major with a photography minor. However, I started during covid, so my early classes were all online. This gave me a lot of space and time which made room for me to explore my inner worlds. And while I enjoyed learning about illustration and photography, I felt something was missing and I longed for a new path of creation. Several peers recommended exploring fibers, but I hesitated until I had a transformative experience during a volunteer program hiking through the forests in Costa Rica. Through time spent reflecting and meditating there, I realized I needed to follow this path of natural material making. Switching to fibers, I immediately connected with natural dyeing, experimenting with flowers, bugs, and plant minerals to create vibrant colors, as well as weaving. I loved the hands-on, experimental nature of the process, the alchemy of it all one must say. Exploring alternative materials, my capstone project was focused on sustainability and reusing waste and themes of taking care. When many of my closest friends graduated a year ahead of me, the shared spaces and rituals we had, consisting of sound bowl meditation nights, breath work circles and ecstatic dance nights became treasured memories. Their absence challenged me to cultivate those spaces within myself, transmuting my feelings of loss into a more self-sustaining sense of love and care. My artistic interests expanded into the micro and macro worlds of nature, using microscopes to explore the hidden ecologies around us. I learned to tend to both my inner and outer world by nurturing relationships, environments, and my own mind, body, and spirit forming the core of my creative practice. I have led sound bowl meditations and free-form art sessions in the park which gave me a sense of leadership and deepened my commitment to healing practices. For my final concept pieces, I sourced sustainable fabrics and created naturally dyed palettes, crafting meditative, tangible sensory works. These creations are deeply connected to the colorful, abstract environment of my upbringing, blending past and present, art and healing. I also enjoy video projection work and incorporating this through projecting visuals through my fabrics with sound playing along. Today, I consider myself a textile artist, but also an illustrator, performer, video artist, creative director, a cultivator of calm and healing spaces, and a lifelong learner of the intricate connections between humanity and nature. I am still living in Savannah, seeking my path and working to build community while embracing the local arts and healing scene.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Engaging with both art and healing as my lifestyle leads me through a spectrum of emotions, embracing moments that are both uplifting and challenging. I’m truly grateful for the support of my family and friends as they’ve encouraged my creative pursuits and uplifted me through challenging moments. Despite this, it’s still difficult at times to be apart from loved ones, especially with most of my family back in New York. I often grapple with maintaining confidence in my own identity and resisting the urge to retreat to familiar places. Staying motivated isn’t always easy, but being part of Savannah’s vibrant, caring, and environmentally conscious creative community helps keep me grounded and regulated. This connection and shared purpose reminds me that I’m exactly where I need to be as I continue to discover my own path.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in crafting sensorial immersive experiences. I lean towards naturally dyeing and linen, cotton or silk fabrics as my mediums of choice intentionally finalizing them out to represent my own Deities. I recently had an art gallery showing, titled “Taking Care” at the Bululu space, where my pieces lived for a night and over 100 engagers came to experience. There I had my pieces experienced as the immersive trance I hope them to be living in. I projected subtle visuals over the fabrics, from a variety of short films I have shot playing with recorded sounds and ephemeral moments. I enjoy intertwining time as best I can through the senses offering a nostalgic trance-like experience. I am most proud of my work when it has an emotional impact on viewers where they feel like they can bring home with them a new feeling, or a new conversation!
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I am an advocate of self compassion and truly remaining in being gentle with ourselves throughout our every day. Yes, it is important to push ourselves and hold discipline yet pushing ourselves too far and with no kind recognition for our efforts is harmful. I aim to promote creating safe and soft spaces for ourselves, and when this is authentically cultivated our cups run over and our path and all the people we are supposed to meet we will attract! The more we cultivate the healing arts throughout every aspect in our inner and outer worlds the smoother we can move through emotional, environmental, and global challenges and transition towards a collective shift. Listening to my body and what I consume has truly been a game changer, feeding myself limited content and proper nutrients my vessel calls for. My art is a product of untangling, navigating and curiously exploring my minds world in which is mirrored around me. Tending tangibly material, sound, line, color, form through the motion of my hands connected with a string to my spirit is how the healing naturally unfolds!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://samanthaadler.squarespace.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sam.adler/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-adler-047a7120a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@h3avenbreathe251
- Other: https://samadler29.wixsite.com/h3avenwhispers
