My role as an artist is to be open, curious, and available to observe. I look for something to move me, so I might express that feeling on, into the work. I know what is on the surface is elusive, and the true feeling is in the interior. The process of observing leaves one free to a mystery beyond thought or the so-called coincidence. This reverence for the unexpected is key.
The artwork is a symbol, a trigger, for the viewer to respond to a feeling that she innately recognizes – always has known – though cannot define in ordinary terms. She is brought into the artwork, the feeling within, and is moved as though she had forgotten something precious, and is now reminded.
My work is influenced by Asian aesthetics and philosophy. Though I feel there are many complexities inside my imagery, I struggle with the contradiction that comes in paring my work down to the simplest form, as though a seventeen syllable haiku.
My creative life began as a freelance writer, and commercial & editorial photographer. For years I have been concentrating on limited-edition fine-art, and my most extensive body of work is in the still life genre. I also work with the landscape, and the female form. I work in black & white and color, using both traditional photographic print processes & archival pigment ink prints on fine cotton printmaking papers. In recent years I have begun a natural flowering of my work using a variety of mixed-media.
My work has been exhibited internationally…is in museum, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Japan. I live and work from my rural studio & home in the forested foothills of the North Cascade Mountains in northcentral Washington State – closely surrounded by the variations of nature which stimulates my spirit and shapes the path of my artwork.
Ken Smith