How ‘Mr Doodle' artist went from earning millions to being sectioned in psychiatric ward & thinking mum was Nigel Farage

The Sun

8 hours ago

FOR most people, doodling is a harmless distraction.
But for Sam Cox it became a dangerous obsession that led him to believe Donald Trump wished he'd graffiti his 'big, beautiful wall.'
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The Kent artist became a worldwide sensation in 2017 when a video of him using a marker pen to draw over a shop gained 46 million views in a week on social media.
Soon Sam's doodles were selling for a million dollars and big name brands such as Adidas and Samsung commissioned him.
That provided the funds to buy a £1.35million mansion, which the 31-year-old compulsive creator wanted to draw all over.
Working for 36 hours without sleep, though, sparked a major mental health breakdown in which he believed he was his alter ego Mr Doodle.
Sam thought his mum was Nigel Farage and that US President Trump asked him to doodle all over the planned 2,000 mile wall between Mexico and the USA.
A new documentary on Channel 4 reveals how he had to be held down by six burly nurses after being sectioned in late February 2020.
His delusions included fearing the doctors were trying to poison him and that his parents were trying to kill him.
Sam, who has now recovered, tells The Sun: 'I think in black and white.
'I felt I had to be the character.
'It was becoming more 100 percent or nothing.
Artist at war with council over plan to build seaside home laser cut with DOODLES in 'Britain's only desert'
'When I was sectioned it was really frightening.
'In my mind it was like being in the Truman Show.
'I thought everyone was conspiring against me.
'I felt like I was in a game.
'You think health professionals and even family and friends are trying to hurt you.
'Donald Trump or other celebrities took the place of other patients in the hospital for me.
'I remember thinking my mum was like Nigel Farage.'
Thankfully, after six weeks in hospital he was able to return home and is now fully recovered.
The documentary titled The Trouble With Mr Doodle, which airs on Wednesday, allows Sam to figure out how he got into such an altered state.
His parents Andrea and Neill knew early on that Sam was different to other children.
Growing up in picturesque Tenterden, Kent, he showed no interest in outdoor pursuits.
Instead, Sam just wanted to draw all day long, even doing so under his bed covers when he was supposed to be asleep.
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Andrea says in the documentary: 'You don't want to think there is anything wrong with your child.
'It did cross my mind that there might be something different about him.'
It was while studying illustration at the University of the West of England, Bristol, that his distinctive style started to develop.
One day he turned up to class in a white suit and fedora hat with black marker pen scribblings all over them and his lecturer nicknamed him the 'Doodle Man.'
But getting other people enthused about his art was not so easy.
Dressed as Mr Doodle he found few customers willing to buy his A4 sized individual sketches for one pound each.
Gradually, though, he started to earn money by having his creations on clothes and buildings.
It was a video of his doodling on a pop up shop in Old Street in east London in 2017 that skyrocketed his reputation.
Images of his work also attracted the attention of Ukrainian artist Alena and they started chatting online.
Sam, whose mum thought he was so obsessed with his art that he'd never get married, kissed his love interest as soon as they met up for the first time in Berlin, Germany.
He recalls: 'It was one of the first times I wasn't really drawing and it felt like a good experience.'
It was the purchase of a 12-room house near his childhood home in December 2019 with the sole aim of doodling all over the Georgian style property that was to push Sam beyond his limits.
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With a builder uncle having painted and tiled the whole house white, Sam quickly started to feel mentally unwell as he started drawing on it in February 2020.
This was the time that Covid 19 was sweeping across much of the world and having travelled extensively to the Far East, Sam did wonder if it was connected.
He smiles: 'It was so weird.
'Covid hadn't really reached the UK entirely then and I had spoken about my work a lot as a Doodle virus.
'When it reached the UK was when I went into hospital.'
Suddenly, everything spiraled out of control.
It was clear that this was something other than a virus.
Hallucinations and panic attacks put him in fear for his life.
When his dad Neill turned up, Sam told him 'I love you but you are trying to kill me.'
When I was sectioned it was really frightening. I thought everyone was conspiring against me...I remember thinking my mum was like Nigel Farage
Sam Cox
Sam also told Alena that he didn't love her and loved someone else, which wasn't true.
A psychiatrist told the family that Sam had to be sectioned for his own safety.
But he only pretended to take his medication once on the secure ward, so half a dozen nurses had to hold him down while it was injected.
Sam says: 'Your mind goes into a dream or nightmare state and your mind can't grasp what reality is until you've recovered from it.
'I couldn't even watch television without thinking it was talking to me.'
Sam spent six weeks on a psychiatric ward in Canterbury, Kent, being treated for psychosis.
Understandably, his parents didn't want Sam to return to his Doodle house once he had left the hospital.
His mum says: 'I hated that character he created.
'I just wanted him to go away.'
Sam also considered killing off Mr Doodle, but then decided this character had brought him some of the best things in his life such as Alena who he married after recovering from his illness.
He has found a safer half way approach allowing time for both Sam and Mr Doodle.
Sam explains: 'I realised there was room for grey areas and for colour in my life.
'It doesn't have to be so extreme.'
On September 18 2020 he began drawing on the mansion again and completed the project 743 days later on October 1 2022.
We love the house. It has never triggered anything since what happened. I live there with my wife and my son and our dog. It doesn't make us dizzy like people think
Sam Cox
His home gives a whole new meaning to drawing the curtains, because not only are the drapes covered in doodles, so are the bedsheets, the towels and everything else you can think of.
That includes the toaster, the toilet, 2,000 bathroom tiles, the window panes and his Tesla car.
Most people can't believe that Sam actually lives in such a visually stimulating environment, but he insists that he loves it.
Sam says: 'We love the house.
'It has never triggered anything since what happened.
'I live there with my wife and my son and our dog.
'It doesn't make us dizzy or give us headaches like people think.
'It is busy but it doesn't feel like that when you are there.'
The problem is that his two year-old son Alfie has started to colour in the walls.
Sam says: 'He draws on the characters and I don't have the heart to tell him not to because I feel it is too ironic to tell him not to draw everywhere.
'The difficult thing is when we take him to restaurants and they give him crayons and he doesn't realise they want it to just be on the colouring in sheet.'
His next major project is in Dungeness on the Kent coast, where he has received planning permission to construct a Doodle house.
There are other ideas in the pipeline and he says: 'It's always about making it bigger or more walls and things.
'I love kind of big, endurance-based doodle activities like making a really big doodle.'
But with Sam insisting on drawing everything himself, rather than roping in assistants like some artists do, it will all take years to complete.
There has been snobbery in the art world about Mr Doodle, whose work is yet to be shown in a famous gallery.
The always polite Sam says: 'It would be amazing to be exhibited in the Tate, but the thing for me is that someone who never goes into a museum and sees my art on the way to work is equal to someone who goes to a gallery.'
It is remarkable to think that Sam ever had a dark moment, considering how upbeat he is during our interview.
This is an artist whose intention is to make the world smile.
He concludes: 'There is no hidden message. It is what you see, it is happy faces and doodles.
'I proudly say how my art doesn't have a social message.
'I like it when people smile about it.'