Baby Elephant Rides the Octopus Painting

Television viewers around the world know Sam Roloff from his appearances on his brother’s reality show, “Little People, Big World” on The Learning Channel. But art connoisseurs know Roloff as a prolific Portland, Oregon-based painter with an eye for beauty, whimsy, and piquant social commentary. Now, Roloff is collaborating with Bay Area artist Shawn Webber on a unique series of paintings that seamlessly unite both artists’ inimitable styles. Wry, symbolic, and sexy, the paintings are the product of the artists’ 24-year-long friendship. Embedded in the paints, canvases, and panels are the thousands of miles the artworks traveled up and down the West Coast as the painters traded them off, each contributing new imagery, building upon past layers, before handing them off again for the next round.