July 28 - August 20, 2017
Amy Smith – "Embrace"
Watercolor Paintings
smallspace Gallery
Opening Reception for the Artists
Friday, July 28, 2017
7:00-10:00 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Closing Artist Talk
Sunday, August 20, 2017
2:00 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Amy Smith - Artist Statement
My work speaks about bodies interacting. I
paint about different types of touch—violent, tender, abusive, and loving.
My interest lies in the moments of touch that exist between the two
extremes of violence and love, and the moments of touch when it may be
difficult to discern the difference.
Painting and printmaking themselves
already speak in many ways about touch, through facture, surface, and
pressure. In printmaking, the delicacy and surprising strength of the paper
(much like a body) matched with the violence of the press relates to the
tension I am describing in my work. When I paint, I try to relate my body to
the press, and act upon the painting in this way. I feel that the evidence of
my touch on the painting is paramount in my work. Because of this I am
very interested in the indexical mark. The touch of the artist left on the
surface—the accidental evidence of the making of an object—is a very
special part of making that allows viewers to feel connected to the actions
of touch involved in creating.
The content informing my works stems from
personal experience surrounding touch and abuse. I include obscured
narrative elements, the structure of which mirror the vague and cyclical
nature of abuse. I believe that explicit narration would limit my work, as my
focus is on the feelings surrounding the narrative and not on the retelling of
a story. I strive to keep narrative elements in my work open ended.
The
study of psychology and body politics also inform my work. I am very
interested in the way dissociative states affect the body. This is something
I explore through my work with paper cut outs. By cutting up and re-constructing bodies it is my goal to communicate that sense of foreignness
one feels in one's own body during dissociative and dysmorphic states.
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