Take a stroll through the art building and you’ll stumble upon a Junior studio desk with an illuminated lamp, pieces of glass, and quite a few finished and unfinished stained glass projects strewn around. Look closer, and you may see the name Sam Teff hastily scrawled on a piece of sketchbook paper and taped to the wall.
This is the desk of Studio Art and Computer Science double major Sam Teff ’27. He is known around Gustavus for his stained glass creations. Not only have they been on display on campus (in the Academic Support Center, the STEAMery, the Music Building…), but they could also be seen at this fall’s Art Stroll in Saint Peter.
Teff’s journey with stained glass started five years ago with a community college class. Since transferring to Gustavus, he’s become a “stand-out Studio Art major highly respected by his professors and peers,” says his art professor and advisor Kristen Lowe. “It takes an enormous amount of energy and commitment to achieve the level of research and execution reflected in his work.”
Even more energy and commitment: He’s also a Computer Science major. He chose these two majors, he says, “because I really love creating stuff. That is part of the reason I am a Computer Science major and all of the reason I am a Studio Art major.” While he could graduate early, he plans to stay at Gustavus for 4 years, because, as he plainly puts it, “I’m enjoying it, so I might as well stay.”
He’s also getting commissions here. A notable one came from his friend, Alex Keasler ’25, who asked for a stained glass rendition of Old Main. The subject of the piece, which took approximately 30 hours to complete, was chosen because Philosophy and Political Science double major Keasler spent a lot of his time in Old Main and wanted something to remember it by. Even though artist Teff has since added more commissions to his portfolio of work, the idea of them still feels strange. “It’s odd to me that stuff I make, people want,” he says.
Not odd: He hopes to do more of it in the future.
To see more of his work, find Teff on Instagram.