In the heart of it.

Sam Poots (b. 1996) graduated from the Elam school of Fine Art in 2019. Originally from Taupō, she now lives and works in Ōhope, Bay of Plenty. Her practice ranges from drawing, photography, graphic design, and printmaking. Known for her unique style of pointillism, her works are exhibited nationally and are held in both public and private collections. Poots is heavily involved in her local art community working as an event coordinator and directly supports a nationally recognised art award.

STATEMENT

‘We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.’

Andy Goldsworthy

Ōhope based artist Sam Poots, centres her works around the connection between the female and the natural world - life-giving, fertile, changeable, and attuned to the mysterious and sometimes frightening indomitable powers of the earth. Being part of nature is what connects us all. Poots’ passion for the outdoors is something she sees as an integral link to her studio practice.

Her adventures spread from summit to sea, and cites that her connections to the naturalenvironment and the cycles ever-present in nature are a major influence in her work. She has developed a skilled use of the pointillism technique to create her highly detailed pieces that lead the viewer toward unchartered territories and merging narratives

CONSERVATION

Sam's passion for the environment out of her studio is something she sees as a huge part of her art journey, from land based trapping, pest control, animal management, and understanding the human impacts of the ocean like shark fining, fishing quotas, plastic pollution, marine management, and sustainable harvesting to support our ecosystem are areas of continuous learning and focus.

Each artwork can represent a certain part of the environment that has being impacted, and where appropriate donates part of her art sales to trusts or organisations helping these certain species need to have better conservation, media coverage and attention for a chance to sustain life in a hostile environment we have created.

Sustainability, conservation, consumerism, and connection to what we use on a daily bases and its impacts on the environment, the products we use, what we put in and on our body, the clothes we wear, Sam is conscious about trying to make the best decision for our environment. Finding ways we can influence a society of unnecessary consumerism, to a regenerative and sustainably minded products.