Study Q&A session: In Conversation with artist Sam Messer

Artist Sam Messer in studio. Photo courtesy of Jungle Press.

A painting of a typewriter on a wood table against a gray wall

The typewriter painting at The Study at University of Chicago

Each of our hotels proudly features one of your distinctive typewriters, a motif that appears throughout your work. How did your connection to the typewriter begin?

When I first met the late writer Paul Auster in 1995, I asked to see where he worked. He showed me his office and his typewriter. At the time, I made paintings of the “tools” that people used to make their work.

You’re both a Yale MFA graduate and professor emeritus. What does the university creative community mean to you?

I was at Yale School of Art for 25 years. I always tried to encourage my students to explore, engage, and take the opportunity to explore all that the entire University has to offer, both in their fields of study and beyond. I myself would sit in on many classes across the spectrum of what the University offered.

The Study now has postcards of your latest typewriter series, Imagine Happiness. What is Imagine Happiness about?

“Imagine Happiness” came to me while reflecting on the current environment—thinking about what goals we place on ourselves, and how we see ourselves as citizens. I find we often forget the importance of the phrase.

A hand holding up a colorful postcard with a painting of a typewriter in the background

The Study's limited series Sam Messer postcard: a colorful reminder to "Imagine Happiness"

You’ve been featured at the Met, the Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago: the list goes on. What exhibit was particularly meaningful to you?

In 2017, I exhibited ‘DENIS THE PIRATE‘ at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. It was a collaboration I made with the writer Denis Johnson, including an animated film I created using 1,700 etchings to a story Johnson wrote.

Guests are often delighted by the sheer number of museums and cultural institutions on and around The Study's university campuses. As a friend of Study Hotels, which experiences do you find most memorable?

There are extraordinary public museums in each city The Study is located. In New Haven at the Yale University Art Gallery, for example, my favorite painting is The Temptation of Saint Anthony, attributed to Sassetta.

I encourage all guests of The Study to explore each college campus, meet some students, and take the pulse of the future.

Imagine Happiness series in Sam's studio. Photo courtesy of Jungle Press.

Artist Sam Messer at work in his studio. Photo courtesy of Jungle Press.