July 26--While attending Roosevelt University in the early 1950s, Fern Samuels took a few art courses on a whim and uncovered a hidden talent.
"She had a gift, and her professors saw it immediately," said her daughter-in-law, Pat Samuels. "They encouraged her to explore her artistic side."
Samuels' pursuit of her art was temporarily put on hold, though, after she married and began raising a family. But the mother of three found creative outlets in crafting and painting, and once her children were older, she returned to school and earned a bachelor's degree in art from Loyola University and a master's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Later, she became a full-time artist and teacher. She worked in a number of mediums, from collage to painting to printmaking. In the late 1970s, she joined the faculty at Columbia College, where she was an associate professor of art for 25 years.
Samuels, 84, of Chicago, a co-founder of the Arc Gallery in Chicago, one of the first women's cooperative art galleries in the nation, died of cancer July 9 at her vacation home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
In recent years, Samuels collaborated with Chicago poet Beverly Baker on two books fusing art with poetry titled "Every Woman Wears Many Masks," published in 2010, and "She's Anything But Ordinary," in 2012.
"From the start, Fern and I were on the same wavelength," Baker said. "She was a wonderful artist who beautifully and sensitively blended my words with her illustrations in a truly unique way."
As a longtime member of the Florida Artist Group, Samuels was still exhibiting her art and giving lectures up until recently, when her health began to fail, family said.
"She was a very creative and prominent artist, always willing to share her thoughts about art," said fellow member Carol Staub. "She was gracious and always willing to lend a hand."
In 1973, she and a group of fellow artists founded the Arc Gallery as an alternative to the mainstream gallery system. As a nonprofit, all-women artists-operated cooperative, the Arc Gallery provides exhibition opportunities for professional and emerging artists working in all media.
"She was a very open-minded artist and person, who was a maverick in many ways," her daughter-in-law said. "She had a strong, visual connection with the world, which was something she truly wanted to share with others."
Born Fern Andrews in Chicago, she grew up in Rogers Park, where she graduated from Sullivan High School. In 1955, she married Howard Samuels, who died in 2004. She lived with her family in Evanston for many years before moving to Chicago several years ago.
Other survivors include three sons, Mitchell, Paul and David; and five grandchildren.
Services were held.
Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter.
