I moved from Ann Arbor to San Francisco in 1976 to continue work on my MFA. I have been working in my studio at Hunters Point Shipyard since 1999. My primary media are sculpture and painting.

In 2009 and 2011, in response to an invitation to The Florence Biennale I began a body of American Artwork. I call this series AMERICAN TOTEM. I wanted to create work that gave some refection of the American experience. I began by collecting cast off American artifacts with the goal of repurposing them into large scale Totem Poles. I create these totems by welding steel armatures and stacking the discarded artifacts into AMERICAN TOTEMS. This series has been unfolding for the last two years.          

I see each TOTEM as an archeological slice of American life; a snapshot of what has been occurring in our everyday lives. That which was once abandoned and deemed irrelevant and peripheral has a new found focus and second life. I am looking at color, form and conceptually interesting combinations of objects, while recreating a new story about these bits of detritus. I use my own lens to recreate each of these works as a unique historical log of our culture, society and country.

Exhibitions include MEXICO BIENNAL 2008, Hayes Valley Market Gallery, Glen Arbor Arts Commission Gallery, Haley Martin Gallery, Somarts Gallery, Ampersand International Arts Gallery, Southern Exposure Gallery, Dakota Arts Gallery, Velcrow Gallery and Artist in Residence Glen Arbor, MI. San Francisco Travel, ARC Gallery, San Francisco. Publications include ARTWEEK, BANG, SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE, the books ART of NORTHERN CALIFORNIA and AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR. My work is held in collections in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and China. Installations include a major sculptural work in the THEMIS CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS and two major sculpture commissions for the Moore Foundation in Palo Alto. My original art book Samantha Ray is in the permanent library of The Brooklyn Museum of Art.