Artist Statement      

My current endeavor is to capture our changing planet. Consequently, my artwork examines patterns in our environment—urban and industrial as well as natural. I’m interested in the changing intersection between place in city or nature. As an artist, I feel a responsibility to address these changes and the environmental impacts they have had in the California fire-driven eroding mountains, deserts and coastlines.

My latest series is titled Equipoise/Vapours. In these paintings, I make reference to a world that is constantly changing via incredible leaps of technology and unbelievable strains upon the environment. This has caused me to ask, “How we can arrive at a place where balance has been found between technology and nature?“

At what point do we begin to realize that we are not moving through a passive landscape? In both of these painting series, I imagine portraits of the organisms capable of lasting thousand of years, shining a light on our planet’s resilience in the face of human intervention. My work is a reflection that describes the complex counterbalance of asymmetries found in the dynamic forces of nature and a more sustainable way to relate to the Earth.

Education

2010  Studies  Painting with Rafael Perea De La Cabada, Santa Barbara City College, CA
2008  Studies  Painting/Printmaking, Santa Barbara City College, CA
2007  Studies  Painting with Jorgen Hansen, Santa Barbara, CA
2006  Studies  Non-Profit Leadership at Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA
1983  BA          Honors, Central Saint Martins, London, England
1979  AA          The Park Art School, Yeovil, Somerset, England

Bio

Kerrie Smith is a Los Angeles-based artist who returned to painting in 2015 and has been working and currently exhibiting her artwork in Southern California. Originally from England, she earned a BA with Honors in Theatre and 3-D Design and has worked as a theatre designer in England, France, Holland and the United States collaborating with directors/designers Richard Eyre, Pamela Howard OBE, Ralph Koltai OBE, Ken Russell, John Tilinger and John Wells.

Smith moved to California in the 1990s and raised her family in Santa Barbara.In 2001, she founded a non-profit organization named Art Walk for Kids/Adults with outreach programs for artists with disabilities. She also created an art curriculum approved by the Santa Barbara County Art Commission for at-risk kids. Her programs received Congressional Awards from Assembly Woman Lois Capps and Congresswoman Hannah Beth Jackson.

She is a member of the Westmont Arts Council, Santa Barbara Abstract Arts Collective, Los Angeles Art Association, National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art.

Email Contact

[email protected]

Website

www.kerriesmith.net