By Janet Lui, News Correspondent

While most kids dreamed of growing up to be doctors, lawyers or astronauts, Robert ‘Bob’ Guillemin looked to a different path. He dreamed of art.
‘Ever since I got a little scholarship in the fourth grade in the arts, I knew I was going to be an artist,’ he said.’
Guillemin is more commonly known as Sidewalk Sam, bringing the traditional art of museums and galleries to a non-conventional canvas – Boston’s streets. When the weather is more forgiving than it has been lately, Boston residents can find Guillemin creating intricate masterpieces out on the open pavement across Boston.
After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in painting from Boston College and Boston University, respectively, he traveled to Europe and worked as a copyist in the Louvre in Paris, he said.
‘It was a lovely experience,’ he said. ‘It was a reverential act. I felt as if I was a priest in a temple.”
Guillemin returned to the U.S. on the path to creating art for museums and galleries, but he soon realized his art was in the wrong place, he said.
‘I began to have some doubts,’ he said. ‘Art somehow was talking to the elite, the privileged ‘hellip; it was ignoring the vast majority of humanity that was hard-put, hurting, homeless, meek and humble of heart.’
It was from these doubts that Sidewalk Sam and Art Street, Inc., his organization, were born. Guillemin said the organization aims to bring art to the common people and bring them together around important issues affecting the community.
For Sidewalk Sam, it is not about the monetary value or even the prestige of the craft, he said.
‘Forty years ago, I thought I would do a copy of the Mona Lisa, and I said, ‘Why don’t I take that painting out of the Louvre and put it right out with the cigarettes and bubble gum?’ ‘ he said.
He said his intent is to enable everyday people to have an open relationship with art. And from that relationship, Guillemin said he believes society can improve.’
The Paint for Peace program is one model of the spirit of Sidewalk Sam and the organization, he said.
‘We have hundreds, a thousand kids painting peace stuff on sidewalks, in neighborhoods where there have been killings,’ Guillemin said. ‘People are talking to us about doing it in other cities.”
Unlike art in museums, Guillemin’s favorite works did not last for centuries.
‘One time at the Beaver Creek (Colorado) Ski Resort,’ he said, ‘I did a painting with snow cone colors in the snow and when I was done, everyone rushed in and they ate it. I love to do art that’s different, that’s vivacious.”
He spoke endlessly about his desire to work with and talk to college students about art and social change.
‘I want to encourage people who concentrate in the arts and humanities to think beautifully about the potential that their expertise could contribute to America’s well being in this century,’ he said. ‘That people of spirit, people who understand the moral responsibility of society, can direct society into a new path.’
Guillemin has also done sidewalk advertisements for Boston’s non-profits, said Paul Marsh, marketing director for the New England Aquarium.
‘He’s fantastic to work with, a real artist,’ Marsh said. ‘What he offers is really quite special.’
The aquarium, the Franklin Park Zoo and Marriott Hotels are among Guillemin’s past advertising clients, Marsh said.
Guillemin has been working with the aquarium during summers since 2006, painting 10 to 20 ads at prominent locations around the city, like outside T stops, Marsh said.
‘He’s extremely enthusiastic about non-profits, and about helping non-profits,’ he said.
Guillemin has worked with city officials to create a map of places deemed appropriate for sidewalk art, which makes obtaining the necessary permits much easier, Marsh said.
‘He’s just a great guy,’ Marsh said. ‘His outlook on life is amazing.’