Local artist Sam Keith has spent the last several months building up to a big moment - the official launch of her new brand and e-commerce shop, SuperBloom. Sam debuted her line of original art prints, screen-printed apparel, stickers, and more at the Simply Kin Winter Solstice Market last month and after the first of the year, opened up shop online.

SuperBloom lives at the intersection of art and sustainability. Sam prints on and with vintage and un-new items as well as some sustainably produced and quality products that have a lower footprint and are made to last. Her design work is bold, fun, and thoughtful, featuring North American flora and fauna, National Parks, and landscape views.

Sam said she’s always been an art kid, spending her extra time in high school in the art room. “I took AP art classes and went on to earn a B.A. in Studio Art from Fairmont State,” she said. “I curated and wrote for art publications and painted for a very long time, exhibiting locally and nationally before I took a creative break to go to grad school for business.”

The term superbloom describes a rare botanical phenomenon where many generations of wildflower seeds lay dormant under the desert soil, until after an unusually stormy or wet spring all of the seeds bloom simultaneously.

“This really resonated with me and how I feel my life has unfolded. I wanted to incorporate this idea that just because you can’t see something happening yet, doesn’t mean there isn’t progress and that you’re going to be surprised by how beautifully things can turn out into my brand,” said Sam. “It’s grown from just stickers a few years ago, with my confidence as an artist finding my niche, to bigger ideas that I really believe in. “

Sam’s style as an artist is mostly about feel and subject matter. “I make several different types of images; however, they all still seem to flow together because my constant subject is nature. Nature itself, the experience of nature, the stewardship of nature and so on. The fact that this extends outside of just paper and onto pieces of clothing that directly affect the amount of landfill waste in even the smallest way is a real-life extension and exercise of my values.”

Working with un-new and vintage materials is important to Sam and her brand. As a self-described vintage junkie, she loves a good, unique piece of vintage fashion that has held up to the test of time.

“Taking some of these items that have already been loved, are made with incredible quality, are impossible to authentically reproduce no matter how hard these fast fashion corporations try, and upstyling them to give them a fresh take and a second life keeps them out of landfills and gives me a ton of joy and satisfaction. Especially when I get to see my pieces resonate with someone.”

“I know she would be very excited about what I am doing.”

Sam said her grandmother taught her how to sew almost thirty years ago. “Using the skills she gave me in this way is something that’s very important to me,” she said. “I know she would be very excited about what I am doing.”

Her favorite piece she’s ever made was a mini-skirt she made in undergrad using dead stock pale olive-yellow velvet fabric. She printed purple mountains around the hem. “I wish I knew what happened to that skirt because I think about it way more than I probably should. Maybe I’ll make another one.”

Her first experience with screen printing was in a graphics and publication course she took in high school. She also took several semesters of printmaking courses while she was in undergrad.

“Printmaking is a multi-step process, and you can’t rush it no matter how badly you want to. I am neurodivergent and I get distracted easily, among other things, and the rigid process that screen printing entails keeps me totally engaged in what I’m doing.”

She said it’s a lot like building something. “Each step is equally important and if one doesn’t take the time and give proper attention to detail it won’t turn out. This is in stark contrast to my experience as a painter and multimedia artist, where everything was incredibly experimental and open-ended. I think the more regimented screenprinting process is much more enjoyable for me in a lot of ways.”

A lot of Sam’s inspiration comes from a piece of clothing she’s found or a landscape she’s visited. She spent a lot of time traveling the western US last year and said that has definitely influenced her design work. The first shop drop features Yosemite National Park, Mount Rainier, New River Gorge, and desert landscapes.

“I start my process with an item usually, I’ll get inspired by a specific piece I found and then I begin digitally, usually with an image in my head, and then pull my composition together in Procreate on iPad,” she said of her process. “I do my full design totally digitally and then print the image on a transparency and burn the image into an emulsified silk screen. Then I can either print directly on an item, or I’ll print on a patch and sew the patch onto the item. It depends on the age and wear of the piece.”

With SuperBloom, Sam is hoping to eventually build a large enough audience to do a restock and shop drop every month. As a mother who travels quite often and also worked a full-time 9-5 job, she said she thinks a monthly drop would be a feasible workload.

“I just really love what I do and want to share it with people who enjoy nature and hold similar values regarding sustainability and our responsibilities as consumers.”

You can shop the collection now at SuperBloomco.shop and be sure to follow Sam on Instagram for updates, upcoming drops, and more!