Storyteller, educator, writer, set carpenter, airplane model designer. Steph Sammons has had many titles throughout her life, but she never considered herself an artist.
"For a long time I didn't feel like a real artist, because art was something I did when I couldn't do what I was supposed to do," Sammons says.
When she was younger, Sammons would've described herself as the "smart girl," with a full-ride to Santa Clara University and a double major to prove it. This all shifted when she was in a car wreck during her sophomore year in 1993, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. From re-learning to read and write to recently publishing her own art book, Sammons has taken quite the journey.
Sammons' Alphabet of Mythological Creatures is a playful collection of drawings depicting mythical creatures from cultures all around the globe, along with beasts inspired by stories from her own life. Although her book, released this winter, is now featured in four Inland Northwest bookstores and two art galleries, Sammons says she never expected to receive so much attention and instead created the book as an ode to her own personal journey.
"It was kind of like going back to school," she says. "I wanted to be a straight-A student again, just to prove to myself that I could, because I'd been through so much."
The artist's professional life leading up to this moment has been as eclectic as the creatures in her book. From working in costume and set design for the Tacoma Little Theater to drafting airplane models at Boeing, Sammons was engaging her artistic talents long before she called herself an artist.
Her background in drafting influences her "structured" art style today. While the book's mythical creatures are whimsical and full of robust movement and animation, Sammons' aesthetic is organized and clear — she likes things in their place. She uses ink and colored pencils to bring her mythical creatures to life. The self-described "Sharpie girl" doesn't shy away from heavy linework, nor does she reject color.
"I love color, and I love putting contrasting colors together," she says.
After Boeing, Sammons attended Eastern Washington University's recreational therapy program, directing her talents toward hospitals and schools via art therapy. She's worked with children in the pediatric oncology ward, as well as kids with special needs throughout the Spokane area.
During her time working in Post Falls public schools, Sammons was asked to work with a little boy on the autism spectrum who was born without an optic nerve. She taught herself braille and got creative with sensory lessons and the use of sound. Using different keys of Beethoven's Ode to Joy as an auditory tether for the student, Sammons would introduce the smell of pine or the taste of mint gum, creating for him an understanding of the color green.
"He can still go through the entire color wheel to this day," she says.
A storyteller by nature, Sammons rarely produces artwork without some symbolism behind the piece. The creatures in her Alphabet of Mythological Creatures are inspired by the people in her life and legends from cultures worldwide.
For example, Sammons' niece is from South Korea, so the letter S, the Samjok-o, is for her. The letter C for Cipactli is inspired by a child she used to babysit, who commissioned her to create a creature he had in mind.
"When he was 9, he came to my very first art show, and he just stood against the wall. He had this commission he wanted me to do, and it was like a fire-swamp-lizard thing. Every time I sell a book, he gets some of the money from it."
One of the creatures most dear to Sammons is her J.R.R. Tolkien-inspired Ent — a personified tree for the letter E. She created this piece during summer 2020's raging forest fires, selling prints and postcards and donating all proceeds to Spokane Valley firefighters.
"A lot of these were in response to what was going on in the world," Sammons says of the creatures she chose.
Because the project was always meant to be a personal accomplishment, Sammons explains that the public attention she's received for the book has been overwhelming, and she can't believe that some of her most closely held dreams, like being featured in Auntie's Bookstore, have been realized.
"My idea of a hot date when I was little was to go down to Auntie's and hang out and look at the books, and I thought, 'Someday I'm going to make a greeting card that's gonna be good enough to put on the rack at Auntie's.' But now, I have a book there," she says.
The most fulfilling aspect of it all for Sammons has been the connections she's made with others, and the general support of the Spokane community. She says a former high school teacher recently bought copies of the book at Wishing Tree Books for their students to have.
Amid the excitement and whirlwind Sammons has experienced over the past few months, she's not forgotten the reason she loves creating art.
"I love the story behind it. Everything has a story behind it. It's surprising the amount of people that art touches." ♦
Learn more about artist Steph Sammons at her website, simplystephsammons.com
