David Neff
1978

(Edited Transcript)

Sculptor tries for personality in each piece 

Since mid-July, the ceramic sculptures of the Snohomish River Valley's Ben Sams have drawn thousands to the Gail Chase Art Gallery . . . .

Why?  "Ben Sams is a master--he's the best ceramic sculptor in the world since Picasso," says Ms. Chase emphatically.

The comparison between Pablo Picasso and Ben Sams is absent in the newspaper reviews posted on the gallery's walls.  The reviews, however, do suggest that 33 year-old Sams is a master in his own right.

The reviewers constantly mention that Sams' pieces to use the words of the Bellevue Bulletin "draw a line between delight a a sort of awed revulsion." . . .

"I try to develop personality in each piece I do," said Sams . . ."A piece has no means of verbal communication.  It's personality must come from the visual identity embodied in it." . . .

The life size sculptures on display at the gallery are even more phantasmagoric.

"The Texas Ranger," a favorite of the critics, "is a symbol of cultural protection," according to Sams.

It appears to be a poke at the macho gun-slinging notion of how the West was won. . . .

When viewing Sams' work--"inspired by now single source," he claims--it's hard to imagine that the creations are made from clay--a substance that slips, slumps and collapses in its real state. . . .

Since 1965, when he entered the University of Montana and received a bachelor and master of fine arts degrees, he estimates he has built 1000 pieces "and sold or given away 800 of them."

Meanwhile, Ben Sams hints he has a few projects up his sleeve that may turn people's heads further.  "It's a challenge," he says of his work, "to keep  trying to make something taller and more life-like.  To keep pushing the limits."