Guillemin (Robert “Sidewalk Sam”) is born in Dayton, Ohio.

(Sidewalk Sam attends Boston College, graduates from the University of Illinois, receives a master’s of fine arts degree from Boston University, and studies art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, working as a copier of the great masters in the Louvre. Returning to the U.S., he moves to the Boston area in approximately 1973, settles in Newton, and teaches in local schools. He then devotes himself to making temporary, chalk drawings of well-known paintings on public pavement that delight passers-by and earns him his nickname. Guillemin continues his art, even after an injury leaves him confined to a wheelchair. He dies in Newton on January 26, 2015.