Title: Spring Release: Spring in Portland with Ant DNA
Size: 48 x 36 inches
Date: 2009
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Sold: Private Collection of Dr. Ryan and Maria Anderson

Sam Roloff’s “Springtime in Portland with Ant DNA” is a brilliant expression within a new genre of art called “Back-story Underpainting”.

The idea originated in Sam Roloff’s studio as he began layering multiple paintings sequentially on a single canvas. Hidden, within each finished work of art, is a multilayered collection of paintings.

Each under-work as well as the outer surface has an associated tale or back-story represented by the artist in written word and digital photography. The underpaintings are often edgy, controversial, and even shocking. These secretive expressions of the artist are then hidden one by one and finally sealed with a gorgeous surface-work.

The final product in “Springtime in Portland with Ant DNA” is a frothy, whipped up cross-section of spring essence. Teeming with particles and sweeping elements, the image sprays and churns in a lively textured rubbing of life. It contains the ethereal elements of air, water, earth, and fire and captures not only real flying ants, but Spring fever itself!

The back-story includes a winter’s tale, the occurrence and mending of trauma to the canvas, ant specimens under glaze, and Sam Roloff’s personal documentation of his stepwise process in the studio. Fascinating.