At first glance, Napa artist Sam Tubiolo seems a quiet, unassuming man with a shy smile. Hidden beneath that façade, however, is a powerhouse of monumental artistic creativity and technical expertise.
“I wanted to be an architect when I was in school, but all the math was daunting,” he said with a soft laugh. “I turned to art, although I didn’t know how to do it.”
He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology having learned drawing and printmaking before receiving his MFA from the University of New Mexico and his secondary teaching credential from San Francisco State University. He worked as a cartographer and illustrator draftsman for archologists in Colorado prior to becoming a sculptor, public artist and a university and community college instructor in New Mexico and California.