As Samira Gdisis walks across her patio and stands before her studio door, you will see her pause. That pause is a moment when she wonders, sometimes aloud, “Who gets to do this?" Art is more than doing to Samira. It is essential; it is being; it is breath.
While Samira creates in many mediums, none speaks to her like printmaking. It is both passion and a bit of an obsession. After a trip to Cape Cod and Provincetown, Massachusetts, she researched and began to create white line color woodcuts. The media speaks to her. It is lighthearted and imperfect, playful and charming. The finished colorful prints make her smile.
Much of her studio practice is printmaking, linoleum cuts, monoprints, intaglios, and collagraphs. Her inquisitive and explorative nature is indisputably evident in all the other media she explores like painting, book arts, letterpress, encaustic wax, and the occasional ceramic adventure.
Samira holds a bachelor’s degrees in psychology, interdisciplinary art and printmaking. She also has earned a Master of Art in museum studies. Her work has been shown in local, regional and national exhibits.
If you spend a little time with Samira you find she does not just want to make art, she wants everyone to make art and for making art to bring them joy.
Samira Gdisis is a printmaker and interdisciplinary artist, community builder and curator from Racine, Wisconsin.
