Sidewalk Sam takes art to the streets of Boston

Street artist Sidewalk Sam would like to die at age 92, painting a Michelangelo on the sidewalk.

Since he started creating sidewalk art 41 years ago, Sam has been inspiring community members and showing them that they are an important aspect of the art world.

Sam, born Robert Guillemin, is the creator of created Art Street, Inc.— a non-profit organization that brings the arts out of the galleries and onto the streets, engaging everyday people with interactive art at cultural events.

“Art dealt with ideas that were rarified, that were exclusive, owned by intellectuals and aestheticians who could appreciate a language that was beyond the knowledge of the average human being,” the 72-year-old said. “And I thought that art should be a language that everybody understood.”

Despite becoming paralyzed 17 years ago due to undisclosed causes, Sam has not stopped creating street art. Aided by a number of mechanical apparatuses, he still reconstructs paintings by Michelangelo, Rembrandt, van Gogh and others upon the surfaces people walk on daily.

His aim is to create art for the average person—most recently, he organized a block-long interactive mural at the Allston Village Street Fair, and planned a mural for the families of 9/11 victims.

Sam, who was born in Boston in 193,9 received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Boston University. After which he trained in Europe for two years, eventually working as a copyist at the Louvre, making copies of old master paintings.

Upon returning to the United States, Sam said he opened a gallery on Newbury Street and held a one-man show at the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

At the age of 31, he gave up the gallery world to take his art to the street, copying classical masterpieces onto the sidewalk under his current moniker, Sidewalk Sam.

Sam said that he prefers sidewalks to studios when it comes to making art because he is able to see people’s reactions.

“That’s the art, that’s the beauty,” Sam said, “and people that look at the art are the art and I knew that this was so, and I enjoyed that magic and I wanted to be a little lowly part of this exuberant outburst of creativity from 10,000 pedestrians walking down the street.”

Sam started Art Street, Inc. in 1991 with the help of Sen. John Kerry after the two met while Sam was painting a mural on Boston Common, he said.  Art Street, Inc.’s first major project was under the direction of Kerry to celebrate the first Earth Day.

Sam will be speaking at the Tsai Performance Center on Oct. 30 as part of the Howard Thurman Center’s BU Inspire: A Call to Arts program.

“I like BU. I like BU guys – they’re beautiful,” he said, “I like BU women – they’re spiritually inspiring. I like the whole mechanism of BU in this setting. I think it’s an important valuable addition to modern education.”