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Drawing started very early for her--by age two she was drawing figuratively. Carmels' memories from that time period, and she remembers the feeling she had when drawing, it’s hard to define for her, but she felt compelled to try and express something she'd connected with; that feeling is still behind her desire and need to make images.
Where does the visual image originate? Carmel believes it is born out of some kind of spiritual or soulful connection. It may just be a flash of something that comes to mind, a feeling of connection to a place, a person, a colour, shape or line, a patch of contrast. She works intuitively and instinctively. To work any other way dries her out; it’s just not sustainable and doesn’t feel right.
Certain motifs show up again and again, and will keep doing so until she is done with them, or they with her (if ever). Shells are a metaphor for our temporal existence and our inside/outside nature. Dance is another theme she is drawn to, not only because Carmel is a student of modern and interpretive dance, but because it has that literal and symbolic duality.
In the work itself, fluidity and movement are of prime importance. Suggestion cohabits with statement. Negative space is as important as positive—what’s not said is as important as what is. And a sense of visual/spatial continuity often shows up, no doubt linked to my concerns with movement.
Born in Newfoundland, Carmel Smith spent her early childhood in a “resettlement” town, where she received her first “formal” art training at age seven, by taking oil painting classes offered by a visiting U.S. artist. She credits life’s experiences as having the major influence on her art, including “books read, images savoured, people met, music heard, dreams dreamt, visions beheld, things felt.” She currently lives on an organic farm in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.
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