About Sammy

Sammy Beam is an artist and a designer who has been called a visionary for over thirty years because of his  genius  at transforming interior spaces.   Whether he is commissioned as a full-service designer, to create rooms from scratch, or asked to work with other gifted designers, he brings to each job, large or small,  a great deal of knowledge, skill, impeccable style, and exceptional beauty.   

Born, raised, and educated in central Kentucky, with  hopes for a future in fine art or fashion design, Sammy took the first career opportunity that was offered.  At twenty years old, he  was hired as the window designer and print ad  fashion illustrator for one of the state's oldest and most prestigious retail establishments.  His five year tenure there proved to be the most valuable part of his education.  In 1987, he left the position to pursue other possibilities, and took with him the commitment to excellence, ethical practices , and rules of compliance and completion that he'd mastered under his employers' watchful eyes.  

Thus began a new period of learning and discovery as Sammy  became a free-lance master of several creative trades.  He worked  with exciting interior designers in the Bluegrass Region, helping them bring their ideas to fruition, and often lending ideas of his own.  As he refined his skills, (fabric draping, painted finishes, trompe l'oeil, and decorative murals,) he realized that his true passion lay no longer in the world of fashion, but in the world of interiors.   This is when he began to accept  interior design jobs of his own and to travel extensively, throughout the southern United States, creating elaborate trompe l'oeil environments for businesses.   This was the period of his most prolific public mural works in his beloved Lexington.  

In 1994, feeling that he'd saturated his home market  and needing new creative challenges, Sammy relocated to Los Angeles.  His first few years on the West Coast were spent making new business connections  while he continued to supply large, shippable murals to commercial clients throughout the country.   Slowly, he began to build an impressive portfolio of works for designers in Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, Malibu, and Santa Barbara.  

In January of 2007, Sammy began a sequence of extensive paintings on the walls and ceilings  of a long term client's newly acquired Umbrian-style farmhouse in Santa Barbara's Hope Ranch neighborhood.  In room after room, he was allowed to have his way, elaborately painting ceilings and walls, creating what would be the nucleus of the home's design as a whole.  Late in 2008, with the spaces exquisitely embellished but practically empty, Sammy's client,  now a dear friend, asked him to take on the role of designer, to furnish and finish her dream home.    

The attention to detail, the level of focus, and the quests for perfection and client satisfaction  kept Sammy busy, under exclusive contract, for the next four years.    At the end of the project, he walked away from the most monumental undertaking of his career, to date, as well as one of the most uniquely exquisite homes in Hope Ranch.  

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In January of 2014, Sammy was commissioned by the owner of the reknowned Clifton's Cafeteria, in downtown Angeles, to create murals for new and enormous public spaces that were added during the epic restoration and renovation of the beloved institution.   Among his contributions, there, are the two-story Muir Woods murals that adorn the brick walls of the Gothic and Tree Tops lounges, the bison and deer dioramas of the Monarch Bar, the art deco murals of the Map Room, the botanical mural that floats above the  secret staircase entrance of the Shadowbox, (an underground speakeasy,) and all of the moody and transformative murals of the Pacific Seas Tiki Lounge.   

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In the summer of 2018, Sammy's career moved in a new direction.  He was contacted by the Art Director and Production Designer of the newest, yet to be released, Jordan Peele film, Us. (Peele's earlier film, Get out, received four Academy Award nominations and won the 2018 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.)   Because of his signature style of painting and artist's recognizable hand,  Sammy was waivered in, as Lead Scenic Painter, to bring a recurring set that was crucial to the film's plot, to fruition.  Us is scheduled to debut, in theaters, in March 0f 2019.  

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In January of 2020, Sammy was hired as Art Director, in conjunction with Marmol Radziner Interior Design, to create painted finishes for the Bloomsbury Group-Omega Workshops-inspired offices of the Amy Pascal bungalow at Universal Studios.  In addition, he was commissioned to execute fifty Omega Workshops-inspired paintings that are on permanent display in the Pascal Bungalow.

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In the periods between these larger projects, Sammy remains busy with private commissions that are created in his studio. 

At the time of this website's publication, Sammy is once again available to consider  creative ventures with other gifted professionals, or with discerning private clients who delight in stretching the boundaries of imagination.