B.C. man overcomes adversity to realize dream of painting professionally

Adam Sawatsky learns how a local artist turned his painful life experience into a fulfilling career as a professional painter.

VANCOUVER — Sam Siegel never would have imagined how transformational art could be when he began drawing as a boy.

“There was nothing more exciting than having a blank page,” Sam says. “And filling it up with doodles at school.”

But Sam struggled to focus on anything else, fell behind in school, and was eventually diagnosed with ADHD.

“My worry was, what’s he going to do when he grows up?” Sam’s dad Bob Siegel recalls. “What’s he going to do for a living?”

Sam’s family encouraged him to pursue his passion for art, but Sam went into the service industry instead, and then after a major surgery was prescribed a powerful painkiller.

“I really fell in love with opiates,” Sam says. “Once that kind of ran out, you go to the street and find alternative ways.”

And for the first time in his life, Sam stopped making art and started succumbing to addiction.

“There were times that I thought I might not ever see him again,” Bob says. “That’s how worried I was.”

Sam’s family tried doing everything to help, but nothing worked. It wasn’t until Sam hit rock bottom and completed rehab for a second time that he started turning adversity into opportunity.

“I guess because I was an addict, working is one of those things that I can’t stop,” Sam laughs.

And because ADD gave him to the ability to hyper focus, Sam started working 16-hour days, seven days a week, launching an Instagram account showing the making of his art, teaching himself how to build a business with his dad, and opening a gallery called Sam’s Art.

“Sam figured out what to do with his life,” Bob smiles. “I’m very proud of him.”

Now seven years sober, Sam spends his free time exploring nature and finding inspiration.

“You just completely get into another world, creating infinite ideas,” Sam says. “It’s starting from nothing and then ending up with something.”

And like a canvas, if you find things aren’t working in your life, you can choose to paint over it and start creating something even more beautiful than you imagined.

“It’s a dream come true absolutely,” Sam smiles. “For people to email me saying they get so much joy having my paintings on their wall, there’s no better feeling than that.”