Name
Samaya Glazier

Brain Tumor Type
Craniopharyngioma

Date of Diagnosis
Diagnosed at age 8

Age Group (If you are a caregiver/family member please check Caregiver/Family Member)
Children: 12 and under

Category
Multimedia/2D/3D

Artist Statement (include type of art, techniques & materials used, what it means to you)
“Landscape of Life” Apr 3, 2023

This journey has not been easy. Right before and even after surgery my world turned upside down. I struggled to find my place in the world. This year, I had this idea of using my body as a canvas to paint a 3D landscape. Nature is inspiring to me because it shows us beauty and how it can come back to life with love and care.

As you can see, I have formed a detailed landscape covering my lower chest to full face. The lower part depicts disaster, it is dark like a war zone with burned down mountains and trees. The sun is gone, the air is thick with smoke and fog, and the water has been sucked away. The scene is smoky and vision is unclear. The upper part is a brighter landscape with calm clear water, trees, open sky and brilliant sunset. The top shows progress and life, mother nature coming back to life. One idea I had while creating this was to depict two versions of a similar landscape: life and death, hurt and heal, Heaven and Hell.

When creating this landscape, I used a palette of face paint with an acrylic-like consistency that was easy to work with. For my head piece I designed an origami, abstract, paper bird and attached it to a clip for my hair.

Some techniques used for this 3D, multimedia landscape painting include Hatch Marks and Blending. You see the use of hatch marks within the trees and the grass along my outer chest, and water ripples. You see the blending technique incorporated into the sunset, sun, mountain range, body of water, the darker sunset below and blending the grass into my natural skin color.

Choosing my body as a canvas was a different experience. I am used to drawing or painting other subjects on paper or canvas. But here, It was me who I was expressing. I was both the art and the artist.

To me, this 3D piece shows progress. .. light and dreamy landscape on top comes out of the dark. It feels like the progress from everything I’ve been through- with Nature as the story. The progress from low to high is like how I'm finding more balance and finding my place in my life.

Bio (include your age, tumor type and date of diagnosis)
Samaya (11.5 years old), is a young passionate artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She showed great enthusiasm and focus for art at an early age. Samaya would become immersed in her projects and always felt at home with her art. In elementary school, her work was chosen to be entered into a city-wide contest hosted by the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

As Samaya and her work has matured, she tends to gravitate toward portraits of people and animals. While she has an uncanny ability to replicate the works of the masters by eye, she loves to create her own art which is expressive with color. Her favorite mediums are watercolor and acrylic as well as multimedia projects.

Samaya is a survivor of Craniopharyngioma, a rare pituitary brain tumor. She was 8 years old when diagnosed and had multiple surgeries in 2019 to remove both the cyst and tumor. She is now in recovery with lingering medical challenges but has regained 100% of her sight and her “art spirit”. Art is an incredibly healing process for her. This is her third year participating in Raymond Wood’s Art of Surviving. She has won in her age group, category and both “People’s Choice” and “Judges Choice” in the past. She is honored to participate again with so many amazing artists and survivors.

In the Summer of 2023 she'll be making her mural debut. Samaya was selected to present a live making mural as a part of DUMBO (Brooklyn) Arts District & Development. She will have a massive piece of her art blocked out and she will live paint one side while the public will be invited to paint on the other side. She is excited to share her art beyond the walls of home and school.

It is Samaya’s wish to pursue a creative life in Visual Arts. While her path has not been easy, art has helped to light her way. May her work bring some hope and color into your day. She is grateful to Creatively Wild and her primary teacher Sally Novak for teaching her and instilling in her confidence and love of the craft.