Show 2 : Sammy Lopez

I earned my BFA in 2007 from the University of South Carolina. After graduating, I helped start PIENSA: Art Company with Robert Chambers and my brother, Dre Lopez. As a multimedia art/design studio, I worked in the local arts community to set up art events in which I was able to collaborate with local artists of all fields and backgrounds, as well as use my art to set up fundraisers for local and global causes. I have taught art classes at the Columbia Museum of Art, the Department of Juvenile Justice, as well as teaching children within home schooling networks.

Outside of the local community, as a freelance artist/designer, I have created custom design work for small businesses ranging from catering companies, to restaurants, to musicians, as well as programmers. I’ve also created illustrations and design work for book covers, as well as multiple self-published comic books under the PIENSA: Art Company.

I am currently a graphic designer for Free Times publication.

My fine art experience has allowed me to show on several occasions at the Columbia Museum of Art, 701 Whaley, Anastasia & Friends, Gallery 80808, as well other smaller nonconventional galleries throughout the Southeast. My work carries the versatility that my projects require. My mission, as is in the name of the studio, PIENSA (Spanish for think) is to create work that makes you think. I’d rather have the viewer get their own experience than have me dictate it to them.

For this collaborative work, I decided to focus on the theme of past memories and loss. The ideas of “ghosts”, or memories, of the past resonated with me and I wanted to show just how those “ghosts” can haunt us far after they were created.