KOMUNICATIONS

Annuit cœptis

2012-01-30T00:16:00.000-05:00

Annuit Cœptis
A new painting for a fundraiser for an organization for Burmese education at Like the Spice Gallery in Brooklyn!

Acanthophora

2011-12-07T17:49:00.001-05:00

Acanthophora

Ink, gesso, graphite, charcoal, coloured pencil on paper
6.5" x 11.5"
2010

David

2011-12-07T17:40:00.001-05:00

Unfinished, but coming along nicely.

2011-11-16T15:10:00.001-05:00

As Yet Untitled
Strips of Acrylic House paint, Oil on Canvas
20 x16 in.

2011

2011-11-16T14:59:00.001-05:00

A friend from college recently did a portrait of me - thanks a million, Sara!

2011-11-16T13:32:00.001-05:00

Brooklyn:
A group of roommates go to a bar to celebrate a new addition to their apartment; an old friend of one of the group, both men from Milan. At some point in the evening, one of the roommates mentions a dead pigeon that had been lying just outside their front door that day. All of the friends agreed that the pigeon's death was sad and needed to be removed, though the group thought that throwing the corpse in the dumpster, just a few yards away, seemed a bit callous. "After all," one of the roommates reasoned between sips of whiskey, "that pigeon sort of represents what it's like to live here in New York. You're just one of millions, and the city won't even notice once you're gone." After a few drinks, jokes, and discussion, the friends decided that the only thing to do was to give it some sort of funeral right. They gathered a few things on their way to the pigeon - a shoebox, weeds, some lighter fluid.
They made their way to the East River, and set the pigeon off, ablaze.

Sweet Tooth

2011-11-16T13:27:00.001-05:00

Sweet Tooth

Oil on Panel
24 x 15 in.
2010

If

2011-11-16T13:16:00.001-05:00

If
Oil on Canvas
22 x 16 in.
2010

New Workstation!

2011-11-16T12:44:00.001-05:00

Good bye to my old, rickety drawing table - hello beautiful new workstation! I cut two feet off of this desk that was abandoned at my job, then put up some new angled shelves to hold my paints and solutions. It's so much easier to get home and just dive into my work! I've been much more productive this past month, than I had been the past six months; a great reminder of how much an artist's setup effects their productivity. This is what I had to mull through every time I needed a different color, before the new set up:

Dictyosphaeria

2011-11-16T12:20:00.001-05:00

Dictyosphaeria
Ink, gesso, graphite, charcoal, coloured pencil on paper
11.5" x 17.5"
2010

Ulva

2011-11-16T12:17:00.001-05:00

Ulva
Ink, gesso, graphite, charcoal, coloured pencil on paper
22" x 10.5"

2010

Rabbit Hole Studio Holiday Art Fair

2010-12-09T17:48:00.005-05:00

Heads up – this weekend, I’ll be participating in Rabbit Hole Studio Art & Design Holiday Fair! This should be a really good time, with lots of stuff going on. All the artwork included is available at an affordable price, so come by to find some great gifts! There’s also going to be plenty of good art, beer, wine, and if I’m not mistaken, there will be a happening as well!

The event takes place over the next two weekends- the 10-12th, and the17-19th. I’ll only be able to make it the first weekend, so if you want to say hi, do so this weekend.

Rabbit Hole Studio is located at 33 Washington St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

See you there!

The Last Few

2010-10-21T15:38:00.009-04:00

Hey all,

It's been a while since my last post, but I haven't been completely idle for the past ten months! I now have an online portfolio at kosmith.org, so to check out any finished work, you'll have to go there from now on. I'm going to keep this blog as a behind-the-scenes look into the making of my work.

Also, I'm having my first New York solo exhibition on the seventeenth of November! I'd like to see as many people there as possible, so bring friends and family! The show will be at Con Artist in New York's Lower East Side, at 119 Ludlow.

I've also started a shop on Etsy selling Floating Bookshelves. Intrigued, no? Check it out at Urban Vintage.

In the meantime, here's a few candids to whet your visual palette-

Autoportrait, Final Stage

2010-01-20T15:15:00.002-05:00

Autoportrait
Oil on Canvas
20" x 24"
2010

Autoportrait

2010-01-12T01:11:00.004-05:00

Theses are the stages of a self- portrait I'm working for a competition hosted by ArtistsWanted.org. It is in the same vocabulary of technique, and line of thought that was presented in the previous painting I posted. To read about it, go to The Girl.

The Girl

2010-01-12T00:23:00.009-05:00

Untitled
Oil on Canvas
20" x 24"
2009

This painting, though still unfinished, has presented a new dialogue between my work and my life's unfolding narrative. I began this painting as a simple exercise, had no thoughts or expectations about it; I wasn't even sure whether or not I'd lose interest in it before I'd finish.

In the first session of working on this painting, the figure of a young girl was rendered in a glowing burnt sienna. The background and colours on the figure (after the sienna sketch was finished), were intuitive. I simply used the colours on my palette that hadn't dried from my last painting. As the palette started to form, a parallel between the narrative of my own life, and that of my colour choices started to take form.

The figure is a young girl, an adolescent; the colours and textures describe not only what she has lived, but also what awaits her in adulthood. With every colour there is an added experience and layer of complexity to her personality. With every experience comes the potential for her to become jaded, or to shine. The structure of the picture represents, of course, a physical being; the colour and movement that it enables within and around her form, is representative of her life situation; the process of life and it's myriad possibilities. The painting is of a being, constantly walking a tightrope between spiritual weariness and innocent brilliance.

Working Statement

2009-12-11T18:14:00.010-05:00

Square Peg
Oil on Canvas
48" x 36"
2008

I've recently been working on my artist statement for the body of work tentatively titled Exchange. This is the statement as it's progressed thus far, but it's far from finished. If anyone has any suggestions, comments or critiques, please feel free to comment, or e-mail me.

Figures rendered in a blazing sanguine create a metaphor centered around the idea of exchange through human connection- the ideas, information, sensations, moods, and energies shared through contact. Plugs, cords, data and information cables and ports are integrated into the figures, focusing on the reception and transmission of sensations, likening them to electricity, or digital information. These arresting figures take the foreground, while negative space in this series is used as an echo of the individual character of the figures, the space being either abstracted, or patterned.

The idea these paintings intend to open in discussion, is the idea of the capacity humans have for exchange and communication that is non-material. This part of the day-to-day experience is largely overlooked; these mediums being subtle to the point of non-substance. It is these components, however, that dictate much of the quality of experience in life. In these paintings, a parallel is brought forth and exemplified visually, with a few stylistic choices to form a perceptible continuity within the body of work.

The choice of red stems from the direct experience of observing my own rhythm, patterns, and emotions. While moods, thoughts, and emotions have a tendency to shift from day-to-day, hour to hour, minute to minute, and so on, I have noticed in myself an overall vibration and rhythm, which I feel syncs up best with this red. The name of the colour is Sanguine Earth Deep, but the connection to it was established before I noticed the name. The uniformity of colour for each figure does not, however, denote that every person shares the same rhythm that I do; the red is utilized as an expression of the feeling of my own experience with both materiality, and the sensations that the paintings are concerned with.

Behind the stylization and exaggeration of certain parts of the figures, lies my own lighthearted view of the idea presented. Parts of the figure are purposely elongated in order to exaggerate the character that each figure takes on, and their relationship with their assigned mode of exchange. The figures are exaggerated a bit, in recognition that the way that the idea is presented is, in itself, an exaggeration of a supposed reality.

K.Smith
winter, 2009

On the Question 'Why?'

2009-05-12T01:12:00.001-04:00

Every now and then an artist may approach a certain project or idea, and without warning a fear sets in. A fear that revolves around the imagined pointlessness of their technique or project, freezing creative and productive capacities with questions like 'Why should I start this project?', 'Why make this peice of art?', 'Why do this at all?' All of which can be averaged into one short, piercing question;

'Why?'

There are two sorts of answers to this question; one simple, one not-so-simple. The latter fills books, magazines, blogs, websites, bookstores, and libraries across the world. While we should give these answers serious consideration, it strikes me as rather funny that most of the theorizing and defining-it-all, is done by people whom do not actually make art. Artists, on the other hand, have access to both forms of answers. And a good thing for us that one is so simple, since the other is practically maddening. Our answer is out of reach for our spectators and lookers-on, except in their own feild.

As Artists, we should think long and hard about the more complicated answers to this question, but not get lost in it. Our main concern should be in the making of art. Production. Producing. Getting the work done. We should give deep consideration to our work, but at some point, we actually need to do it.

With the pressure of producing work, we may find ourselves getting hung up on the quality issue. It's all well and good to do a ton of work, but even scarier than the idea of not making art, is the idea of making bad art. So after we exhaust ourselves werestling with the question 'why?', we may not have the drive to handle the idea of our making a bad peice of art. After all, if the work is shit, what will all the people who we may think to be smarter than us (peers, professors, critics, etc.) say?

It's easy to get caught up in this, but we need to remember that not everything needs to be shown. Not everything needs to be worked over in discussion as if it were the triumph of one's career. There are sketches, rough drafts, and models, and mock-ups that go into the making of a good peice of art. Not every little scribble you do needs to be up for critique. So show the good stuff, and do what you will with the bad stuff. I'd recommend putting it up where you can see it every day, that way you won't be able to rest until you've done something decent.

Our focus should be in the creation, the ideas, the doing. When presented with the question of why to do anything at all, the simple answer we can present with confidence; Because we are Artists.

Fine, and You?

2009-03-28T00:14:00.007-04:00

Here are a few pieces I did recently, just to work in a style different from my usual work. I started them all, with the exception of the man with the hog head, on a whim. Through the frustrations of working with a new technique, and by strange twist of fate, they have become much more personal than a lot of my other work. It is ridiculous, sad, and maybe a bit funny how one sometimes feels a stronger connection to the things they struggle with; to the things that give them the most trouble. I suppose it only makes sense, really. The emotional investment and all that.

THE TRIO'S FINAL EXCHANGE

2008-12-08T21:12:00.008-05:00

This is a painting I started a little while ago, and it's actually just a bit farther on than it is in this picture. I've yet to find a name for it, but that'll come in time. The most important part of it is one of the parts that is as yet unfinished. In the lower center, on the central figure's belly, there will be an electrical socket where his navel should be. This element in interaction with the others, could almost be representative of the whole idea behind the series- The recognition of the interconnectivity we share through different means of communication, (Excuse me, how silly- I meant Komunication. Heh heh.) both material and non-material.

This is the second rendering of Exchange in it's final state. I decided to let the plug go beyond the frame, as it gives the piece more of a sense of story, and it extends the space of the painting beyond the borders of the canvas. It makes us think there is something else, and that something else almost becomes the secondary subject of the painting, but is not known.

EXCHANGE (the second)

2008-09-12T17:24:00.002-04:00

I was recently hired to do a copy of the painting Exchange, which I posted back in June. These are the stages as I've worked on it, although it's still not finished. I decided to soften the brush strokes in this version, to change the mood of the painting slightly. Whereas the figure in Exchange (the first) is strong and iconic, this rendering is more personal. There is a glint of hope, that could just as easily be fear, or awe, in the eyes of the subject.

This seems fitting to me, as there is often both a bit of awe, and fear in the anticipative feeling that hope sometimes produces.

OCULUS

2008-09-12T17:20:00.004-04:00

This is another painting from the Exchange series, titled Oculus.

ASCENT

2008-09-05T18:53:00.007-04:00

This peice is another from the series I've been doing, it's called Ascent. My freind Flor graciously agreed to model for this one, and I thought she had a great shape to her neck, so I decided to extend it, for emphasis.

1000 COUNT

2008-06-24T22:25:00.006-04:00

This is another painting from the Exchange series. I intended to add a pattern in the background at first, but after much thought, decided I wanted to have the background white. The initial image in my mind and feeling I had for this painting was a very light, pure one, and I thought adding a pattern would be too much of a distraction. This time, instead of an energy exchange, I had more of a sensuous information conveyance in mind. Hence the USB port in the toe, and Firewire port in the sole.
I've yet to find a name for the series this painting is a part of, and I'm not content calling it the Exchange series. That makes it sound too much like some high school foreign exchange student's showing of work in the school library.
This, along with the previous entry, was one of the paintings featured in the "Impact Art" show I participated in at the end of May.

EXCHANGE

2008-06-10T20:15:00.003-04:00

Here's finished product of the aforementioned EXCHANGE.

RACE

2008-06-10T19:41:00.006-04:00

I participated in a show on the 31st of May in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, hosted by 5th Gear Multimedia. Each participating Artist was asked to produce a piece of artwork based on a particular theme, and write a bit about their thoughts in approaching their subject. My given theme was race, and it's negative impact on society. Below is what I've written.

Originally, keeping in mind the negative effects of racism on society, I intended to single out an incident or institution as the subject for my piece. I thought about the American and South African apartheid, and many other instances where racism, as an ingrained part of the social institution, has devastated the lives of those it affected. I also thought about the people whom would be seeing this piece of work, and realized that, by and large (I hope), most of my viewers will have already been well acquainted with the negative effects and tragedies that racism has brought about- if not directly, then at least indirectly .
In pondering racism's effects, I came to realize that I'd only ever taken into consideration it's effect on the victims. I started to wonder what could be some of the shared consequences of this thought process, ones that transcend the very separation that racism itself causes. I found one to be the problem of understanding; or more accurately, the lack thereof. It is common knowledge that when there is a lack of understanding of another sort of people, misconceptions, prejudices, and the like, begin to arise. And what more are prejudices than the limits of one's own understanding? Prejudiced understanding is limited, so the subject of one's misconception is even more so. The perceived people are compartmentalized into a frame of understanding, so that they fit into an already limited perception without expanding it. So in the end, misconception gives rise to misperception, and the observer is bound in their own frame of mind, just as the perceived is bound into their affixed category.

STUDIO

2008-05-28T12:37:00.002-04:00

Here's a few photos of my studio, for those interested.

EXCHANGE

2008-05-22T19:49:00.004-04:00

I've been working on a series of paintings recently, the idea for which revolves around the day-to-day exchange of immaterial information, from person to person. This information being emotions, feelings, energies, ideas, and words. In the paintings, I integrate electrical, and information plugs and cords into the human figure, signifying the faculty for this sort of exchange.

This is the first painting from this series, although it isn't in it's finished state in this photo. I'll post the finished piece later.

A name for this series hasn't yet struck me, unfortunately. Anyone have any suggestions?

WHAT'S UP WITH THE WEIRD PAINTINGS?!

2008-05-20T21:30:00.008-04:00

In 2006, I started working on a series of paintings based on the idea of the the identity as a construct. The paintings feature three main elements; a human figure in an abstracted environment, a mask, and a collaged object that is the focus for the figure. These elements make for an interesting, if a bit strange piece of artwork, I know, but what do these have to do with the identity as a construct?
Living in the world we live in, we are constantly surrounded by external stimulus and information- material information, religious information, literary, aesthetic, or philosophical information, just about any sort of information one can think of. This information, regardless of how respected, revered, or seemingly concrete, is ultimately constructed of ideas. The individual is attracted to these ideas because, consciously or subconsciously, we feel that these things reflect some truth about ourselves. Throughout the course of our lives, we gather this information, surround ourselves with it, and by the time we've matured, we have constructed a patchwork identity for ourselves, made up of ideas that have little to do with the unique human being that we are.
The three main elements I spoke of before, are a representation of this idea. The human figure, the constructed identity, and an object from which that identity feeds for ratification.

Oh, and the last picture- the detail of the second- was also featured in the Redivider poetry journal, along with the sketch called 'Gwi-Yeon', in the last post. When I opened the book, I was happy to see that this detail is the first peice of artwork featured in the journal!

GWI-YEON

2008-05-18T18:50:00.004-04:00

This one was published in the spring 2008 issue of Redivider, a journal of new literature and art, produced by the grad students of Emerson College. It's also the first of these stylized sketches that I did.

FACES

2008-05-18T18:27:00.004-04:00

I started doing these stylized sketches after doing some stuff in my sketchbook that was ok, but I didn't really like. All of the people I've done so far are friends, or acquaintances at least. I notice it's a funny thing to draw someone you know. In conversation, you run the risk of making whomever you're talking to uncomfortable if you study their facial features. Just observing someone is different, as well. Details, features are taken in, but there seems to be a different process of observation in translating what is seen into an expression of some sort. I think maybe we skip things in our everyday interaction with people, and we only see what we need, or want. When I actually take the time to sit down and really study some one's face, there are a lot of things that I realize I overlook. It's a funny sort of experience, really. Looking, and looking, at someone who's already familiar, and feeling all of the emotions associated with them whenever you look. Drawing or painting people you don't know is a bit different- there are presumptions and emotions from the first look, but past that, I'm free to assign them a personality. That is, provided I never actually meet them.

It's also funny, knowing the subject of a drawing, to compare their personality traits to their facial features, and see how they relate. These interpretations are of course purely relative, just fun little games for the mind to toy with.