Original Art Piece

Hello, my name is Samantha Hurley and I am a Toronto-based Artist and Photographer who has a dedication to creating beautiful and interesting images. I can be found either traveling the world with a camera in hand, or exploring what my kitchen has to offer. I have always loved the beauty of objects and the passion of food. I adore how you can create a whole new world, in a photograph.

With 15 years of experience and clients all over the world, my love of light is only growing bigger with every photograph.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My father once asked me why I made a piece of work.
All I could come up with is that it had to come out.

It’s like I have this old wooden barn that’s filled to the brim. With metal cups, old plates and glass vases piled high. There are stacks of paper with hand written notes scribbled on them in faded blue pen, placed on an old wooden weathered school desk. Somewhere in there is an old piano that’s echoing all the hands that played it. There are forgotten boxes of treasures and weathered guitar bodies that are separated from their necks. It’s stuffed.

I know that somewhere in that old barn is something important. My heart calls to it, and I have to find it. I am just not sure what it is.

As I unpack the barn to make room for my searching. People celebrate, inquire or fall in love with the treasures I uncover. Someone loves those old chipped teacups. They find solace in a item. They remember the nostalgia of an old antique glass they used as a child.

Every item I bring out I hold to see if it’s what I am searching for. Sometimes it’s close to that ineffable thing, but when I spend enough time with the piece I realize, I have to keep searching. Those teacups have taught me what they needed to teach. Or I see the home they have in someone else’s hands.
The pieces I unpack represent my work. This barn, it’s full. I’ll keep unpacking all my life.
Hoping one day I find that thing my heart’s searching for.
In the meantime, this unpacking, it feels like it’s why I came all this way.
It’s why I am here.