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For most of the greatest artists of our lifetime and times past, there was a catalyst that inspired them to pick up their pen, pencil, or paintbrush, and change the world entirely with their overwhelming expression and emotion. It’s not often that an artist this prolific and defined by hardship comes along, but when they do, their art is typically able to move hearts and souls across the world.
Harnessing the Darkness
One of those artists, Samantha Messias, has channeled her darkness into one specific form of art: pencil drawing. Regarded as one of the best hyper-realistic pencil drawers in the entire world, Messias adds something special to each work of art, taking her ideas one step farther into a realm all their own.
Samantha takes her pencil artistry and enhances the tiniest of details, intensifying them, changing contrasts, textures, and lighting along the way. Her goal is to awaken the emotion, feelings, and response in the viewer, extending far beyond the art she is putting on the paper.
Hoping to spark resilience and courage in the hearts of others that are in the depths of their own darkness, that’s exactly what propels Messias forward every day.
“My ability to be resilient when not being accepted or experiencing failures is an important skill and one that I am very grateful to possess,” said Messias. “The completion of my works and signing the end result is so rewarding, since I know that I am not only one step closer to my goals as an artist, but that I am also putting something out there in the world that is hopefully going to make it that much more tolerable for other people battling their own darkness.”
Rising Above Adversity
No stranger to darkness, Messias was abused as a child, all before the age of 5. She was adopted by a new family after being removed from a neglectful mother and father. By age 20, both of her biological parents had passed away. What Messias didn’t know is that by 22, her adoptive parents would also both have passed away from cancer.
In 2020, Messias suffered the birth of a stillborn baby with her partner, putting her back in that dark place she had tried to run from so many times. But, learning to cope with life’s heartbreaks through art, Messias turned to her pencil drawings as a means to make it through the next hard chapter.
“At times, there are no words for what has happened in my life,” said Messias. “But what is the point in taking all of this hardship and doing nothing with it? I am not a quitter, and every day I wake up and put that pencil on paper, I know I am persevering and showing hard abuse victims that they can, too. We have to all stick together.”
Messias’ clarity and attention to detail have not gone unnoticed. Her art has been displayed in the New York City Agora Gallery and London La Galleria Pall Mall. She also recently won the drawing category for the Visual Art Open Awards.
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