From Dark To Light, Why Samantha Messias Is The Artist To Follow

Samantha Messias is a phenomenally talented artist, but her abilities are only part of her story. Behind the art, there is a painful past that has proved extremely difficult to come to terms with.

“For the first five years of my life I was subject to so much abuse and neglect,” Samantha recalls. “I saw things no child should ever see. These experiences left me with many scars, and years later I had to eventually deal with them and seek therapy in order to move forward with my life and see the joy around me again.”

Samantha was the youngest of eight children. However, due to her parents’ drug and alcohol dependencies, she grew up alone. When she was just two, her mother caught her father doing inappropriate things to Samantha while she was on his lap. She reported the incident to the police, only to later retract the allegations because she needed her partner’s financial support.

“The abuse got worse after that and from the age of two to five I was subject to sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and abandonment,” Samantha explains. “My world felt so dark, lonely, and evil. I thought no one cared about me because the people that are supposed to protect you the most betrayed me. I grew up believing the world was unsafe, unjust, and cruel.”

Samantha continues, “After moving to a couple of temporary care homes, I was saved by my wonderful adopted parents Alice and Vinny Clarke. For a while, I didn’t speak because of the trauma I had witnessed and endured. I remember being sat in a room at a roundtable with a pot of pencils and paper in front of me and after a time I began to draw, I started to communicate and express what had happened to me by drawing it. At the time, I didn’t realize that what I was doing was actually a form of art therapy and one that I would continue throughout my life.”

Art rescued Samantha from the depths of despair. Without this medium to express what she was feeling, she may never have had the courage to deal with what happened to her and seek the help she ultimately needed.

Samantha’s art teacher at school noticed her talent, but the advice she gave her was not encouraging. “She basically told me that it’s not really possible (to become an artist) and that I should direct my creativity into something that I would most likely get paid for.”

This advice persuaded Samantha to study fashion design at university, but she started drawing again after graduation. “I came across the genre hyper-realism in 2013 and fell in love with the intense detail and how realistic other artists made their drawings appear. I tried it out using the grid method — a very helpful technique — and it just worked for me. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears went into creating most of my artworks but I feel blessed to share my work with the world.”

Since that discovery, Samantha has really made the hyper-realism genre her own. She has created a plethora of remarkable drawings which look so real that many people think they are looking at photographs initially. On closer examination, the skill of this brilliant artist is clear to see in every breathtaking detail. No wonder she has become known as ‘The Human Printer’ on Clubhouse and Instagram.

Although her portfolio is already awe-inspiring, this is only the beginning for Samantha. She aims to bring many more drawings to life, featuring subjects ranging from inspirational celebrities to family pets. Check out her Instagram profile to follow her inspirational journey.