A brief glimpse into the background that led to the controlled chaos of Samuel Silver’s mind.
Samuel Silver grew up in the late 1900s in a time where most homes did not have a personal computer. The first computer that was brought into his home was a cutting edge 8088 DOS system.
His parents did not believe in formal education and did not want the outside world to influence him to stray from his religion, as such he was left to explore the world on his own.
He was sheltered so heavily, television was a rare treat that was restricted to G rated, heavily censored, or unrated old movies. His fascination with photography started when he was introduced to a Polaroid camera at a family reunion on his mother’s side of the family. The fascination with how it worked stuck with him. His dad was a scientist at heart, but was heavily influenced by religion and didn’t pursue that field, but taught many basic principles of electronics and what later Samuel learned was physics without the math. His mother was a poet and avid writer, but never published anything due to wanting to maintain absolute control over her work.
Samuel was given an engineering welding book by his grandfather who was a skilled welder. His grandfather had a stroke, and when Samuel was young, did not have the patience to explain the math in the book and would get frustrated with his pestering questions. In one moment of lucidity he told Samuel he was too smart for his age and gave the book to him. Samuel, much later in life, walked into the office of his brother in-law who was a mechanical engineer and saw those same type symbols. The curiosity of what the symbols meant constantly drove his desire to find out how the universe worked.
Working in all types of jobs and trades, Samuel met many different scientists, mathematicians, engineers, inventors, artists, medical doctors, and philosophers.
He served a mission for his religion as a young adult, as that was the expectation set for him by his parents, family and friends. Up to and briefly after his mission, his brother in-law would help teach where he could but with no formal education, this was difficult.
During his mission, he met many very educated individuals who said his mind was too powerful to waste and to get an education. Due to a series of influential meetings, Samuel ended up enrolling at Weber State University in the beautiful city of Ogden, in the state of Utah where he studied applied physics. There he was taught by some of the brightest and kindest minds one could hope to meet. They were patient with the fact that he had no formal education, at this point having less than three days of formal education and a G.E.D.
He had to start at the bottom and work his way up. His first math class was learning what a digit was. By the end of his education he was looking at universities to study for a PhD in physics. This path was turned sideways when during his second to last semester, his dad had a massive heart attack during finals. Just before he went in for a Quintuple bypass surgery, his father made Samuel promise to take care of his mother and older sister if he did not come home. His father made it through surgery and during rehab, had a massive stroke, leaving him unable to communicate. His father passed away during his final semester, not being able to see Samuel graduate.
Intending to pick up his education after his mother and sister were taken care of, Samuel turned down the option to continue on with his education and took a job at Hill Air Force Base working on missiles. He worked there until he caught COVID in 2021 and was hospitalized from the illness. As an avid outdoor person, coming out of the hospital in a wheelchair on oxygen was a blow to his mental health, let alone his physical health. The day before he caught COVID he was out ice fishing with his buddies hauling a 50 pound sled behind him across the frozen lake in single-digit temperatures. Being on oxygen in his 40s and never having been a smoker, this was not on his bucket list of life. He had some doctors tell him he would be on oxygen for the rest of his life; others said he would be on it at night only; others said he might need a lung transplant; others said he might heal slightly. At the advice of one or two doctors who said to move to lower elevation to give his lungs a rest, he did so and moved to Michigan where he calls it flat Utah. The mountains have been traded for lakes, and the outdoors still call to him. Now he is completely off oxygen and back to being a tenacious learner and lover of the arts and science.
He met his wife Heather in school and fell deeply in love with her at first meeting. He scared her half to death on the second date by kind of proposing in a round about way. He wasn’t ready for marriage, but due to the culture, he was under pressure to get married as soon as possible. When he met her, he knew he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life, so he dated her for a long year and half, much to the chagrin of his family and ecclesiastical leaders. Many interviews were held to make sure there was no “hanky panky” going on. In hindsight, he wished there was “hanky panky” going on. The long dating period would have been more bearable.
Over the years of schooling and career, they would talk about starting their own business, uniting his love of photography, science, and the arts, with her poetry and drawing skills. COVID was a wake up call to both of them that life is short and can be taken in an instant, as had been seen with many of Samuel’s friends having passed away through the years, and many more during COVID.
So now the world has to deal with the artwork produced by Samuel Silver and sometimes aided by Heather Silver.
Every step in the process from concept to production is overseen by Samuel, Heather, or other skilled professionals. With a few exceptions, AI (Artificial Intelligence) artwork and filters are avoided.
His artwork has aspects of intense mathematical calculations to get the results of a particular concept, such as when he is using his lasers, intense programming to calculate the color needed with an electric arc through a noble gas to get the electron emission for a photograph, chemistry reactions to get some effect in a three dimensional media, and engineering aspects when working with a 3D printer to get a project just right.
Some artists make their name by focusing on one style. Samuel purposefully focuses on differing styles to keep the mind flexible. With a background in applied physics, he does not limit himself to one style. A mind that is limited is not free. As death approaches, the limit to life approaches. This is the only limit that concerns Samuel during his creations.