About Sam Anderson

From a young age, I have enjoyed nature and animals. Having grown up with dogs and eventually horses, I grew to care strongly about animals and wildlife. I grew up in a variety of states, having been born in Georgia, then moving to Colorado when I was 5, and then moving again to Wyoming when I was 14. From a young age, I would sit in my mom’s art room and just sit and watch her paint. Growing up around a successful and incredible artist like my mom, Sonia Reid, helped to instill art as a very important part of my life.

I eventually picked up a paint brush of my own once I was old enough to hold a pencil, and after many years of practicing and taking art classes all the way through high school, decided that painting wasn’t my medium. While I love the creative freedom and vivid colors that come along with paints, I was never very good at getting the colors the way I wanted them, or making things look as real as I wanted them to. One project in my middle school 2D art class forever changed that though. The project had one huge restriction: it could only be done in black and white, no colors allowed. This project, while boring and trivial to most of my classmates, showed me that I have a more keen eye for values and tones, over color.

After this discovery, I continued with my journey in art and took art classes every chance that I could through middle and high school. It wasn’t until my first semester of my freshman year of college that I finally discovered a wood burning tool. My incredibly kind mother in law noticed my hobby of doing artwork and gifted me a wood burning tool one year for Christmas, just to see how I liked it. It sat in the back of my mind for a while before I decided to give it a go, but when I finally did, I sensed I had finally found the medium that suits me. I almost immediately upgraded to a better pyrography machine, to truly test whether or not I should pursue this fun new medium. After a couple of practice pieces, I started to thrive and really enjoy the process of wood burning. The lack of color is made up for in the dramatic contrasting tones of the wood.

While I have come a long way in my wood burning journey, I am always learning more and striving to do better with each piece that I make. I did eventually upgrade to a Razortip wood burner, and this is the machine I still use to this day (pictured below). This amazing journey has allowed me to maintain and be able to express my love for wildlife. I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to follow along beside my mother on the amazing trips she has taken around the world to take professional photos to use as a reference. I have been on trips all over the United States, as well as Africa. I owe so much of my creativity and passion to my mother for encouraging me and allowing me to tag along on her adventures.

I now live in Georgia with my husband Dustin, where I spend as much time wood burning and being surrounded by animals as I can!