Meditations in Paper will be on view from April 23rd – May 23rd 2026 and the online exhibition can be viewed here. Please continue reading to learn about the artist, Sandra Samaha’s background and creative process.
Samaha is a Copley Master artist member at Co|So currently showing her solo exhibition, Meditations in Paper. To celebrate this, Co|So traveled to her studio for an interview and tour. Although Samaha is a native of New Hampshire, her home and studio are now in Kittery, Maine, where she lives with her husband Bruce. We began discussing her artistic process and how she began her practice.
Image of Samaha’s Studio
Samaha always drew and painted as a child. Her elementary school, in Woodsville, NH, did not offer art so when she and her family moved to Exeter, NH she was excited to take art classes in junior and senior high school. She was invited to attend St. Paul’s School’s Advanced Studies Program in Concord, NH where she took the Creative Arts Program. That experience influenced her decision to study art in college. After her Freshman year in college, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and bedridden for one year. This greatly shaped how she viewed the world and has impacted her artwork. While bedridden, reading became a great solace to her. Books such as No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre and Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, as well as poetry by Robert Frost were her greatest influences. These influences can be seen in her artwork today through storytelling and collage.
Left: Sketch of Life Circles
Right: Life Circles
Sandra Samaha
Mixed media collage,
42″ x 42″
In college she majored in drawing and in printmaking, and began selling her serigraphs and etchings. She soon realized her income was not enough to live on and went back to school for a Master’s degree in teaching; and found she loved it. She taught studio art, art history, and advanced placement art history to high school students, but she never ceased making her own art. In her own words, “I could not teach art without creating my own and going through the creative process myself.”
Left: Sketch of The Blues
Right: The Blues
Sandra Samaha
Mixed media collage,
51″ x 41″
To delve into her process, Samaha begins with an idea that comes from her lived experience or one of her books. She explained that sometimes the composition for a piece comes from a visual, while other times it comes from a written form. From there she sketches any figures, landscapes, or pieces of a story that speak to her. After reflecting on her sketches that are scattered throughout many sketchbooks, she begins putting the pieces together into one composition and then experimenting with how the ideas will translate into collage.
Image of Samaha’s Studio
Samaha “keeps herself busy” by continuing to practice the traditional art practices she learned early on in her career by painting with oil, gouache, and watercolor in her free time. However, her drive as an artist is not satisfied until she begins working in layers. She plays with the composition by shifting the sketches around until they tell the story that she wants.
Left: Sketch of Baptism
Sandra Samaha
Her years of experience from plein air painting in California to having solo shows in New Hampshire and Massachusetts have shown her that she works best by backing away from her work while it is still being made. Her goal is to catch someone’s attention while they are still far away; however as they get closer, the story she is trying to convey unfolds before them. This viewing experience can be seen as soon as you walk into the gallery. Meditations in Paper has transformed Co|So into a bright and colorful realm where, in this stage of her life, Samaha has now taken charge of her story and speaks on issues that are close to her heart.
Be sure to see Meditations in Paper before it ends on May 23rd. Sandra Samaha’s work can be viewed here.