Meet Sam Kirk — born to working class, multi-racial parents and raised in neighborhoods all across the Southside, she’s now paving a new path in identity-forward art and intersectional advocacy.
​
“That’s really the purpose of my work, is to share stories from folks in communities that have historically been excluded,” Kirk said. “With my work, I’m really just trying to help people to feel seen and proud and recognized.”
​
So far, Kirk’s career has been set apart by depictions of racial, cultural, sexual, and gender diversity, often in bold, bright colors. Sam describes herself aÈ™ an artist, activist, and storyteller who strives to create narrative-focused art. Yet the origin of Kirk’s career began in high-school, when Kirk discovered art as a creative outlet and a therapeutic way to process her identity.
​
“Art was always a part of my life,” Kirk said. “I was definitely that kid that doodled on my homework. As a teenager it definitely became more significant for me because I had a visual journal. I journaled about my identity, figuring out how to come out. I didn’t know many people who were part of the LGBTQ+ community.”
​
For a long time, art remained a private hobby; Kirk worked in advertising for around ten years, her art functioning primarily as wall art for her office. Her coworkers took notice of her work and eventually helped her network with connections in the art world. Kirk gathered some small commissions and an exhibition at a gallery — and after her first show in 2009, she decided to pursue art seriously.
​
“Within a year I was like, you know what, I’m gonna give this art thing a shot,” Kirk said.
​
Since then, Kirk has created fifty murals in Chicago and seventy internationally, including a large mural in Pilsen — at the same spot where she was the victim of a hate crime in high-school. Entitled “Fierce,” it depicts culturally and racially diverse individuals interwoven with a Pride flag. For Kirk, who now lives in Pilsen with her wife and their child, the mural was in part a challenge to the community.
​
“I wanted to see how much the neighborhood has changed; that’s why I thought it was gonna be vandalized the next day,” Kirk said. “Lesson to me: it has not been touched. Not once. It helped me to see how neighborhoods do change and the benefit, specifically, of more integration in our communities.”
​
Living in Chicago, amongst her public art, Kirk savors her anonymity and enjoys watching everyday people react to her work. Other murals, like her recent piece in Eugene, Oregon or her mural “Sister Cities” in Morocco, she has had to leave behind — but she carries with her the experience of creating each piece.
​
“I essentially had to back into the closet to create that piece,” Kirk said of “Sister Cities.” “Working with the women there really impacted me.”
​
Going forward, Kirk hopes to integrate her personal studio art, which she describes as more intimate, with her public art, which she describes as more community-focused.
“Right now I’m a new parent,” Kirk said, speaking on her own multi-racial, queer family. “So I’ve been sitting with a lot more very personal stories and I’m trying to figure out how to bring those to life.”
​
-30-