After twenty years working in public education, Sam returned home to Minnesota. With this relocation from the East Coast, he rededicated himself to his painting with a ferocity that had been absent since his earlier studio days.
His work explores his Ojibwe heritage, his learnings and experiences in nature upon his return to the Grand Portage reservation while preserving shared oral histories, reimagining the symbolism of the clan animals while incorporating the natural landscape of Lake Superior's North Shore. Sam focuses on continuing the Anishinaabe tradition of storytelling embedding the themes of environmental stewardship and conservation of the North Shore through his studio and public art commissions.
He has completed public art pieces for the Grand Portage tribal nation, Chik Wauk Museum and Nature Center, Voyageur National Park, the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and the Duluth and Grand Marais communities as a means to celebrate Ojibwe culture and language. He has been the recipient of grant awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, Northland Foundation Maada’ookiing, and Duluth Superior Community Foundation.
He has illustrated a number of bilingual children's books. His most recent art coffee table bilingual coffee table book is a collection of paintings and stories from his first year of creating along the northern shore of Lake Superior, titled: Following My Spirit Home, published by Blackbear and Blueberries Publishing in April 2022. Following My Spirit Home was named a silver finalist for a Midwest Book Awards in June 2023. The Minnesota Historical Society press reprinted Following My Spirit Home as a new paperback edition in June 2023.
His work can currently be viewed at Lizzards Gallery and Indigenous First Gallery in Duluth, MN, and Joy and Company in Grand Marais, MN and are in both public and private collections in the United States and abroad.
