Jim Smith is available for on site consultations and would welcome the opportunity to create artwork for both public and private installations. Price on request.
When I see an old tea cup, it speaks to me of warm, light-filled kitchens. It speaks of domestic ease. If the old tea cup is cracked or chipped, it tells a different story. I regard objects as words in my life, and I think of myself as a visual poet who attempts to string these words/objects together to make a statement that will touch others.
My approach to my assemblages is often to create the individual components that comprise them, so I don’t use found objects exclusively. Lately I have been using more and more photography in my art. With theses photos and my 3-d images, I attempt to make what I hope are visual poems. I will often use well-known iconography, like hearts, to lend thematic continuity in order to facilitate the viewer’s understanding of the content of my sculptures.
The other artist form I relate to is that of a pop song writer, as most of my themes are ones that are easy for others to identify. Like a songwriter, sometimes the words come first, and sometimes the music does. With me, sometimes the themes precede while other times it is the objects.
The goal of my art is to lead my viewers to experience personal epiphanies as they seek to understand the meaning and emotion implicit in the pieces, and perhaps even to capture feelings similar to the ones that inspired my creative energy.