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White House, Smithsonian value this Tallahassee artist’s work
May 10, 2011By: Staff Correspondent
Tallahassee, Fla.
From Our Archives…
Death came to the bedside of O.L. Samuels, 73, recently. It wasn’t a good feeling. That’s when he began to pray, and that’s when he told Death to go away. He prayed to God to live. He’s a religious man. And he says he was given some more time on this earth. Enough time to carve out quite a few more figures, including a large horse for sale for the right buyer, and a green-eyed Moses figure in a gold tuxedo, a blue bow tie, and tuxedo.
“There was one night I wasn’t even sick,” he says, “and Death come to my bed and I asked the Lord to let me live. You can’t see it, you can feel it, you got a spiritual eye you can see and know Death was at the foot of my bed. I know it was there and I tell people. They think I’m crazy, but I ain’t.”
“I figure the Lord is going to let me stay on a while longer.”
If you have never met O.L. Samuels, you might think that no one like him could exist. Former boxer and tree surgeon, he’s survived the retribution of a dynamite blast which destroyed his home (he wasn’t at home), three poisonings, a bullet shot into his mouth, a tree accident which put him in a wheelchair, two heart attacks, and a stomach knifing by drug dealers who left him for dead.
Because he has lived in such dangerous neighborhoods, he got a license to carry a gun. At his last home, he put a padlock on his mailbox and nailed a warning sign to a tree in his yard.
His work is in prominent museums in many cities, and his pieces are in the White House and in the Smithsonian. Art collectors and people who like art have flown in or driven to meet him at his shows and even to his home in Tallahassee.
“I went to the Smithsonian and it’s a big place. They bought a lot of work (of mine) out of New Orleans. And they came from the White House and stayed eight hours and they took some work back. I got a greyhound dog going up to White House. They got a bird of mine, and some more pieces, several pieces. “
Miracle for a Child
The measure of this man perhaps is not found in what he does, but what effect it has on people. Samuels has taught children how to sculpt wood. He’s a good teacher. But the greatest lesson of his powers was taught by a child to him.
It was about a piece he made. People called it “Christ.”
“Yeah, I made a piece they called it Christ, but when I was making the piece it took me a while. I wouldn’t never work on it if I had any evil thoughts or any bad thoughts. I would be with a clear mind I would work on it and when I got through with it, people would look at it and say ‘I know that’s Christ.’ I didn’t name it Christ, they did
“And so this lady that bought it, she had a kid that was born and the doctor gave him a shot too strong for him. He was like an infant, you know, and like a baby; he is about 18 now.
“When I met him he was five years old. He knows me but he can’t talk, and he can’t see. But he can hear, and he goes to laughing when he hears my voice.
They bought this piece and put it in the room with him after he was seven or eight years old, and they say they don’t have to give him that medicine no more. That’s what she said, I didn’t say that.“He just laughed, and one night I sung until I was so hoarse and he goes to cryin’ every time I stopped. It hurt me badly that there is something I needed to do for him, to make him laugh.”
His Recent Works are Hurricanes
His latest work includes what he calls Katrina and Rita, named for the two recent devastating hurricanes. Rita is a man, because Samuels has heard of a man named Rita. They are pretty ugly. Rita is “a funny-looking guy with a short nose.”
“The big one (Rita) he’s the man. He sent his wife ahead of him to do some damage but now he comes along behind her.” Samuels laughs and says that’s what men do, “put the lady in front.”
“She (Katrina) feels sorry, but this guy now, he’s smoking a cigar saying it had to be did. He don’t feel sorry for what he did.” And Samuels once more breaks out in a melody of chuckles.
Why did the hurricanes happen? “I think the Lord had something to do with that. He wants them to know he is the God and without him there is no other god and we can’t do damage like he can. He was trying to get people’s attention. A lot of people is cruel and they having a good time and they don’t think about praying. And God ain’t going to let the devil have more soul than him.”
Samuels has a dream. He would like to learn something that people know how to do. He never learned how to read.
‘It Makes Me Feel Good’
“When I teach kids I always tell them to get their college education whatever they have to get because they can’t come through the world like I did. I buy a paper sometimes and I sit down and look at the paper and try to make myself read the paper, and, well, I cry. It’s a bad feeling.”
Ask someone for help, and they laugh at you, he said. He has learned that some people will help him when he asks. But it’s difficult for him to get help when he needs it.
Samuels says he wishes he could keep all of his art. “If I had to, I wouldn’t sell nothing now. I love my work. It’s like one of my kids.” He loves to visit his art in people’s homes and offices. “It’s like seeing my kids again. It makes me feel good because it makes them (people) happy. They enjoy it.
“One lady got a piece she says talks to her. For real. She looks at me like an honest look and says ‘for real, it talks to me.’ ”
And then O.L. Samuels laughs that laugh.
Note: OL can be reached at his workshop in Tallahassee at 850-210-6886