Samantha Scherer
We Are OK Here
pencil on paper
2013-2014
Samantha Scherer, 4 Sale Like New, 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, 4 Sale Like New (detail), 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Alive And OK, 2014, 11 x11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Alive And OK (detail), 2014, 11 x11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, As Is, 2013, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, As Is (detail), 2013, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Down Not Out, 2013, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Down Not Out (detail), 2013, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, God Was Here, 2013, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, God Was Here (detail), 2013, pencil on paper, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Gone With The Wind, 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Gone With The Wind (detail), 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Like A Rock, 2013, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Like A Rock (detail), 2013, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Like New, 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600. (hold)
Samantha Scherer, Like New (detail), 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600. (hold)
Samantha Scherer, Missing Found, 2013, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Missing Found (detail), 2013, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, OK Alive, 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, OK Alive (detail), 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Remember, 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Remember (detail), 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Still Missing Found, 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Still Missing Found (detail), 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, We Are OK Here, 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850. (hold)
Samantha Scherer, We Are OK Here (detail), 2014, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850. (hold)
Samantha Scherer, We’ll Be Okay, 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, We’ll Be Okay (detail), 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Wide Open, 2013, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Wide Open (detail), 2013, 22 x 22 inches, framed, $850.
Samantha Scherer, Will Rebuild Strong, 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Will Rebuild Strong (detail), 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
Samantha Scherer, Yes We R OK, 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600. (hold)
Samantha Scherer, Yes We R OK (detail), 2014, 11 x 11 inches, framed, $600.
photo credit: Art & Soul
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am drawn to narratives about vulnerability, triumph and perseverance. Addicted to crime dramas, murder mysteries and stories about nature’s fury, I am interested in how people react in challenging circumstances and how their choices affect themselves, others, and ultimately the record of the event.
These pastimes reflect an abiding fascination with how conflict is portrayed in contemporary popular culture and directly influence the work that I make. My work references television and internet images depicting a range of widely recognized events and icons from natural disasters to television crime dramas. By isolating and reproducing details from these images, I create drawn and painted snapshots that are elusively familiar with the goal to compile a personal catalog of history and legend as it happens, focusing on the line between truth and fiction and where it is blurred by individual experience.
“We Are OK Here” is a new series of detailed pencil drawings that that focus on the devastation following destructive tornado events of recent years. In the wake of these events, popular media (internet, cable news, etc.) is flooded with raw, heartbreaking images documenting the chaos – I am especially drawn to the images containing stunned and anxious survivors, utterly devastated but already resolutely working out how to pick up the pieces. With the work in this series, I am investigating both the physical and emotional toll of these events, how vulnerable we are in the face of catastrophe and how determined we are in its immediate aftermath. The drawings focus primarily on the texture of the destruction – scarred and dented cars, pulverized and splintered buildings, bruised and dusty residents picking their way through the littered landscape – working to find order in the chaos and sense in the senseless.