He hops on the bus on a corner somewhere on Fourth Streets, in Long Beach; once on campus he boards his skateboard to get to class. Sometimes, with just enough time to spare, he hides his art in random spots across campus.
Sam Medeiros is a sophomore sculpting major, he said he began making illustrations art at a young age, finding inspiration from teachers and peers throughout the years.
He is new to Long Beach; he transferred from Pasadena Community College, he said he has been enjoying his first semester Cal State Long Beach.
Medeiros said he often finds himself drawing things mainly for fun, which is the primary reason he started to drop pieces of his art throughout campus.
Using an acrylic pen he etches his illustrations on pieces of scrap wood, the images often feature characters in a comic book style.
All of his “art drops” are numbered; he has only dropped 20 so far, but he said will continue to make and hide more on campus until the semester is over.
I found his fourth art drop early one morning while delivering The Daily 49er next to the Hall of Science. The wooden piece of art was nestled on a small stack of papers from the previous day. The drawing was winking and smiling, and as I flipped it over, I noticed his Instagram username and tracked him down.
I sat down with Mederios to learn more about his art.
Q. Tell me about the art drops you’ve been doing on campus.
SM: The art drops on campus are pretty much to amuse myself between classes. I grab scratch from the woodshop that everyone puts in the trash and I draw on them and put [them on] my Instagram.
Q. Where did you get the idea?
SM: Jake Parker on Instagram was doing tons of art drops. He’ll put the location down and people would go find it. He’ll go through the country and drop them off. I wanted to do something like that.
Q. What are some of the spots you’ve been placing your art?
SM: I’ve been trying to do it around lower campus, but people don’t really tag back [on Instagram]. If I do it in the art area, people will find it and post it [on Instagram] and tag me. I’ve been trying to cover all of campus, but if there’s no scrap work, I don’t get to do it, so that dictates what I’m going to do.
Q. How many of these art drops do you intend to make?
SM: Until I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m not that consistent, so I didn’t get to do it this week yet. I only did one last week. I’m going to try to keep doing it at least until the end of the semester and we’ll see what happens from there.
Q. People have been getting back to you especially on upper campus. How has that reaction been?
SM: Maybe that’s an exaggeration. I’ve had two people out of 20 people get back to me. … One person found three of them and was super excited. She puts messages like “It’s like an Easter egg hunt or something.” It’s cool because there’s one person that’s enjoying it, so I guess I win. Not a lot of people are tagging [me] so I’ve started writing “tag me” on the back of it and maybe that will work. But if not, it’s ok. It’s just for me, but I try to have people enjoy it.
Q. The one I found was in front of a newspaper stand. What are the other places?
SM: I try to put them in places out in the open but where your eye doesn’t normally go. For example, if you were walking to class and you were thinking about something and you wouldn’t quite notice it. You have to take the time to look up and see it. There were a few though, for example, when I walked through ceramics and their lockers were open and I put a piece there. If they opened up their locker, they would see a personal art piece.
Q. You’ve done sculpture and art drops. What other things have you done?
SM: I was doing a lot of painting. I don’t hate painting but it wasn’t my medium and I didn’t vibe with it very well. I really like clay, wax, and things like those materials. Mainly, it was illustration. It was always little comic books or little zines and things like that. My friend from art sculpture said, “If you can draw it, you can sculpt it.” I didn’t believe him, but it’s true. If you can draw something really well, you know how to make it half the time.
Q: What kind of zines?
SM: I was doing them for my friends’ bands. They were punk rock shows, a few rap groups, and things like that. I would make their advertisement zines and little cartoon characters talking for them. In each page, there would be a comic transition of characters. They’d be talking about advertisements, such as shows and selling this kind of merchandise. It was pretty much promotional pieces.
Q: What do you hope people will get out of this if they find your art on campus?
SM: I feel like it’s a personalized gift. I know I made it for anyone to find half the time, but I feel like it’s a special experience when you find art and it brightens your day. You’re like “That’s cool.” I’m not looking for anything of large effect, but I had fun making it and I want people to have fun finding it.
More of Medeiros’ work can be seen on his Instragram, @onetruesam