My guest today, Sam Kirk, was born and raised on the south side of Chicago.
Spent most of her childhood jumping from neighborhood to neighborhood with her family.
And while she loved exploring new communities and cultures with each move, she was also really grappling with her identity as a biracial queer woman, especially while attending religious school.
So she turned to art as a way of both expressing herself and also processing her struggles and her awakenings.
She eventually found her way into the world of advertising after school, where she would rise up the ladder before the call to paint and create would begin to bring her back into the world of being a full time artist.
And now established with her work in galleries, permanent collections, and large scale public murals around the country and world, Sam creates artwork that celebrates people and inspires pride and recognition for underrepresented communities.
That really celebrates a wide blend of culture and identity and speaks to the politics and issues that define so much of the public discourse today.
Part autobiographical, part fairy tale, her vibrant color palette and her art reveals profound stories laced with optimism and endowed with the fullness and complexity and joy of all parts of who she is.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
I'm a firm believer of the idea that you can taste somebody's heart and intention through the food.
Without a doubt, I have, like, zero.
I'm usually a really rational person.
For some reason, I have that belief.
I've just experienced it too many times.
Oh, yes, I agree with you on that belief.
Without a doubt, you can just tell how much joy somebody had in preparing a meal for you or in cooking the food.
And I'd say in our trip in Morocco, the women in the homes that we visited definitely probably put a little bit more into it.
They were watching us paint the side of a building, and we were the only women participating, the first women to ever do it.
So I think there was a combination of them interacting with us and engaging with us in a way that they hadn't with women really before.