ABOUT

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GRAPHIC DESIGN

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PAINTING

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PRINT MEDIA & PHOTOGRAPHY

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SCULPTURE

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VISUAL NARRATIVE

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@bu_visualarts

@bu_graphicdesign

@bostonpainting

@pmp.bu
@bostonsculpture
@buvisualnarrative

@sambittaker

he/him

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Sam Bittaker

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Where I grew up was sat between the hustle of urban life and the quiet pull of nature. It wasn’t a central metropolitan area, nor was it purely rural. It occupied a space in between, where the natural world and human development collide in fascinating, sometimes imperceptible ways. The transitions from nature to urban can be abrupt, subtle, or sometimes, nearly indistinguishable. I spent a lot of time in a park near my house—a space that, to me and my friends, felt like a hidden forest, far from the reach of civilization. In reality, it was just a small, underwhelming park surrounded by suburban developments. It wasn’t until we examined the ground, finding fragments of old pottery and household items, or looked up the hill to see the encroaching rows of houses that we realized the park’s true context. Our perception of being in a remote, untouched space was at odds with the actual place we inhabited. This tension between illusion and reality, the uncertainty of what is seen versus what is perceived, is central to my work.

My paintings engage with these themes of interweaving, negotiation, and transformation. I am deeply interested in creating conditions for an experience that can fluctuate over time. Through layering, wiping, pushing, scraping, sanding, and cutting, the elements in my paintings can shift in meaning, scale, and context. Things can interchange from big to small, from near to far, from familiar to foreign. In this way, the picture plane becomes an arena for exploration—a space where obstacles can be confronted, negotiated, and harmonized. Lately, I’ve been interested in seeing the interaction between the physical and the picture plane. Can the painting operate as an object while simultaneously being a window? In what space will you engage with the painting? 

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