We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kirkland Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kirkland below.
Hi Kirkland , thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
In the Fall of 2007, I packed up my children and moved to France for the semester. I could not speak French, had never lived outside of South Carolina, and my husband, a member of the National Guard, had been sent to serve in Afghanistan for the year. With his support, I searched for an opportunity to study classical realism in painting, as I was self-taught and desired to learn more. Unable to find a program in South Carolina, the closest school was in another state and would require me to move to attend classes. I decided to dream bigger and made a list of all the things I would love to find in an art program, as well as a life-changing experience for my children. My list included painting and drawing from a model, being part of an international community of artists, traveling, living abroad, learning another language, etc. I did not have a trust fund but did have a vision and a plan for making it work. I knew several years in advance that a deployment was inevitable but did not know when it would happen, so every time I went to the grocery store, I got $20 cash back and put it in a savings account. With every painting I sold, I put a percentage in the savings account, and when I won a portrait contest, I put all the prize money toward my dream of studying abroad. By the time my husband’s orders arrived, I was well on my way. Knowing he would be gone a total of 16 months, he let me sell his car!
The experience was everything I hoped it would be and much, much more. Professionally, I learned a way of seeing and better understanding what I was I was seeing, so that I could paint more competently. I learned that I had created a few bad habits that hindered my practice, and also where I tended to misinterpret certain areas in my work. It was a good investment in my practice. Personally, I enjoyed living in the sleepy little village with no tv. My 4 children provided entertainment every night after dinner with singing and dancing, or reciting poems they were learning in French, and they grew closer. My children better understood the challenges their dad must be facing, for like them, he was living in an unfamiliar place with people who spoke a different language and ate different foods. My mother came with us to help with the children and the time with her was priceless. We made friends in the school’s art community of students, but also in the village. Every day presented a new challenge to solve, and it was a sweet time for my family, especially when my husband arrived at the end of our time for his 2 week R&R, a break which soldiers deployed in another country for a year were allowed after spending at least 6 months in their post.
I came back inspired and excited to paint. Although my artistic journey turned in a new direction shortly after returning home, the lessons learned in painting helped inform my new work. And now, after 14 years of working in assemblage, I hope that work will inform my new pieces as I return to the practice of painting…
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am currently a resident artist at Stormwater Studios in Columbia, SC. When people ask me what I do, I usually say I am a painter; but for the last 14 years I have been working primarily with post-consumer plastic to create representational images that hang on the wall like paintings but use no paint. Only recently am I beginning the journey back to painting, while also working with others to create a sustainable place of permanence for visual artists in Columbia. From my studio I create work for museum and gallery shows as well as commission work for public spaces and private collections.
One of my earliest memories is drawing with crayons and there’s never been a time I considered being anything other than an artist. I was blessed to grow up in a home where my parents encouraged my interest in art and it is probably the greatest gift they’ve given me. They wanted me to have a college education but did not discourage me from studying Visual Art. Although my interest was in painting realism, I came along during the height of abstract expressionism, and viewed my time in school as an opportunity to try many different classes, working with a variety of mediums. I fell in love with clay and majored in ceramics. I would learn how to paint after graduation. My father died while I was in college but when saying goodbye, encouraged me to pursue my passion.
After college, I married my high school sweetheart, James Smith, and we had our first child while he was still in law school. Our family grew, and while he was building his law practice, I created a part-time career from home, painting commissioned portraits in oil, pastel, pencil, and charcoal. During this time, I joined the weekly sketch group, About Face, and it was the best thing I did to nurture my art and myself. I learned much from the other artists in the group, practiced my craft by working from life, and became part of a community of artists.
In 2007, James, an Infantry Captain in the Army National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan. He would be away from the family for a total of 16 months. I decided to look at this absence as an opportunity to do something while he was away that I couldn’t do while he was home. Still struggling to perfect my painting, I pursued a long-time dream of studying classical painting and drawing, and another of living abroad, and packed up our 4 children and moved to a tiny village in southwest France, where I studied for 12 weeks at Studio Escalier. My mother came with us to help me with the children, who then ranged in age from 4-13 years old. While the children went to the local Catholic French school, I worked from live models in an atelier-style classroom. It was an incredible, life-changing experience for the family. James spent his 2-week R&R mid-deployment with us in France.
Back at home, I decided to enter an art competition in early 2008, mainly to challenge myself by having a problem to solve with painting. The theme was the environment, and the artists were to address an environmental problem in our work. With 4 children at home, I was aware of the amount of waste we disposed of on a regular basis, plastic in particular. Single use items, packaging materials, and toys that weren’t well made or were impossible to repair, all destined to the garbage. I became more aware of the many objects that weren’t recyclable or reusable, and made to be enjoyed for a short time before ending up in a landfill. How could I paint a picture of that? In the end, I came up with the idea for my first assemblage, “Inheritance”, using post-consumer waste as the medium for my artwork. I chose to create a portrait of a child, an image both haunting and hopeful, to deliver the important message of environmental responsibility in an evocative and accessible way. By giving a face to the problem of litter and pollution, I hoped to make the point that we are the problem, but also the solution. As I continue this work, I hope viewers will enjoy the work for its own artistic aesthetic, but also to see in them the impact consumerism is creating on our environment. “What we throw away says a lot about who we are, but what we choose to cherish and protect says even more in the end.”
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Most people prefer to live in a thriving arts community. Life is more fun when surrounded by music, dance, live theatre, and visual arts. There are many ways society can support artists and the arts, in general. First, of course, is to appreciate the time and energy that went into the creation of a piece of art. Whether you like it or not, the artist has made themself vulnerable to share something with you, the viewer. Many are trying to make a living or partial living from their work, and it takes time to master materials. If you are looking to purchase art, consider shopping local, and support the artists in your community. When planning a fundraiser for your favorite charity, rather than ask an artist to donate work (which they cannot write off on their taxes for the full value- usually only for the cost of the materials), offer instead a mutually beneficial arrangement. Galleries typically take 50% of the sale of art and a fundraiser could act like a gallery in this situation. Allow the artist to set a minimum price, which, if not met, is not sold and the work is returned to the artist. It undermines the artist who has worked to create a reputation for quality work to have their work sold far below their normal price. Some organizations do even better, offering a 70-30% or 80-20% split in favor of the artist. In these cases, the organization usually receives the artist’s best work, rather than the piece in the corner of their studio they haven’t been able to sell… Another option is to ask the organization’s board members to donate work from their private collections, in which case they are allowed to write-off 100% of the artwork. It is a win for all.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I love working as a visual artist. I love the magic of creating the illusion of a 3-Dimensional form or figure on a 2-Dimensional surface. Painting offers challenges of understanding light and value and temperature that endlessly fascinate my curiosity. There is so much I don’t know, and I have so far to go, that I am never bored. There are always problems to solve. I love making things by hand. As I have matured, I recognize the value of taking time for hobbies, for friends, for walking, for reading, thinking, and observing. When I leave the studio, I have opportunities to bump into inspiration and it comes from the most unusual places and moments. I used to worry I was procrastinating but now I know I these times away from the work are as important as the time in the studio. And while I do not always feel completely content and peaceful when working, I love what I am able to do, and love sharing what I do with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.KirklandSmith.com
- Instagram: @KirklandTSmith
- Facebook: @KirklandSmithArt