Life & Work with Natalie Smith
Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Smith. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Natalie Smith graduated from Utah Valley University with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. She is a mixed media artist working with fabric, jewelry, acrylics, and oils. She paints on canvas, masonite boards, found objects, and musical instruments.
She usually adds household objects like mirrors, ovens, dining room sets, or whimsical string that hold my sculptural pieces on fishing wire. To help set the mood and overall feeling for her audience’s experience. She is currently showing in a group show called, “Divine Feminine” in the Nobo Art Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I own a window painting business during the holidays called Natalie’s Window Art and I am a gallery artist. You can follow my current shows through my handle on Instagram @natalieillustrates. I love to curate a gallery space. I feel privileged that I have the opportunity to pull a space together with my own conceptual ideas and strive to inspire others. I have put on four solo shows now in three years and am so proud of each one of them.
In a way, I have learned more about my ideas on a deeper level bringing them to life in my art exhibitions. I have also, started to pick up on a higher level of knowing my calling in life as I talk about my work and meet new visitors while my show is up, I’ve come to understand that it is in my blood to want to show people my deep thought process through visual artwork that accompanies a few installations that invite visitors to take part of an overall experience. I like to test the boundaries of what showing in a gallery means to both the artist and the viewer.Is it about making money, or is it about changing someone’s perspective on a specific subject, or is it about the impact I can make on one’s life? I have moved into three different transitions but they all collide very well together. For example. my first solo show was called “Recipes of Life. ” In this show, my emphasis was showing my autobiography of life events through experiences I had with close family members with cooking and painting those memories as a still life. I was so intrigued by the idea of taking the most “boring” subject matter and twisting it into funny stories of my childhood.
The idea behind it all was to give people a glimpse of my life by creating a family recipe book with realistic paintings. I was inspired by my mom’s recipe book that my aunt Kim put together. It has the recipe listed and a little story attached underneath. Not only that but my first art teacher was my grandma. She would teach me on the dining room kitchen table. I relate because my studio at the time was also set in the kitchen, and I found myself painting a lot of still life studies in the kitchen.
My feminist approach to this was women should feel free to do what they love in the kitchen without feeling enslaved to duties strictly pushed on women over the years as their roles in the family have been in society’s eye for years. “Women are pressured to give the illusion that their lives are perfect or their roles are easy, my work is free of all that. My life is messy, it is hard to keep it together most days. Despite these realities, my life is beautiful. I am finding joy in acceptance. I am finding happiness in the process of the mess.”
Please Join our wall of Footprints in the “Leave A Footprint Project”
In my second series, I went from painting from real-life still life to creating mobiles with found objects that I had spent six months rusting. Then, I experimented more with castings and resin to create 3D eggs dripping from these relics I found at antique stores. At this time in my life, me and my husband were trying to get pregnant but were having a hard time. I was heartbroken, so I kept creating egg after egg to help mend my broken heart. I began to realize the process of making these eggs was more than just my own personal experience. They symbolized something special, and I felt this impression that women could relate to my story and we could help lift each other up in a beautiful way. Then, I began to succeed even closer to the revelation I was receiving. If I had to pick a food that represented women it would be the egg. All females are eggs. The egg in its purest form symbolizes the strength women have in them to reconnect with their origins. We have the energetic power to create a spiritual awakening. We open our third eye and let intuition flow through us. Our mantra is to create beautiful things daily. We represent birth, existence, and fertility. Throughout history, society has suppressed us. So, each egg has been venerated and sainted in my egg series. I chose to call the eggs after women I think of as holy RELICS.
We determine our desire and align with our divine identity. The heavens are open unto us and we are in tune with our sacred calling. The yoke symbolizes the sun within us. We have the possibility to guide the sun’s energy with one whisper, in any direction we ask. Egg whites represent our ancestors within us. We are able to speak to each other telepathically. Life and death have no boundaries. We carry the strings that attach our ancestors to us. The strings are in our veins.
When we speak their names. They feel our voice vibrate their spirit. They help us whenever we are in need of their company. When the sun and the sky work together joy exhumes every soul. During this pandemic, we are all in need of this kind of support. In my process of making the eggs, I took marbles as the yokes then added liquid plastic over the egg yokes. For some of them, I would have to wait and drizzle the plastic again to get the drips to stay in motion where I wanted.
I used vibrant golds, blues, oranges, and black and brown for the areas I wanted to look more fried. After that, I added a 3D gloss to add that egg white while it was still an undercooked look. Some pieces have real eggshells. All were rusted with peroxide and vinegar for the last 2 to 8 months I’ve been working on my solo exhibit. These current shows I have been working on have transformed my critical thinking about how to help uplift women in an empowering way. In the show in Nobo Art Center called, ” Divine Feminine, ” we had a theme that was so striking with two amazing creative artists Eva Maier and Joy Redstone.
We all created works dedicated to loving women all around our communities. We also featured an installation that invited women to participate in “Leave a Footprint.” This goes back to this idea we are born with a black footprint but then throughout the years, we don’t leave a footprint anywhere else, until today women can put their blueprint down and write inspiring words to others or themselves to celebrate all the good they have accomplished. Instead of listening to others’ criticisms or our own, we push our true positive thoughts forward to embrace who we have become with all its raw hardships.
The show that is still currently showing at Next Gallery ends this Sunday, October 3. It is called, ” Origins of the Divine Mother” this show specifically pushes the special roles women have played since the beginning of Mother Eve. My inspiration comes from women in the King James Version of the Bible and other canon scriptures. I was inspired by the fact that there are over 50 different women unnamed in the Bible. Then I thought this concept relates to women today. How many of us still feel forgotten or overlooked.
Then I thought most women represented in most churches are white women when in reality they were darker skin toned. So, I took it upon myself to make a sacred gallery space where women could see other positive female role models during our day and biblical times in all colors. Then, I took it a step further and set up an altar with a station for females to try on one out of four headdresses that represented, Mother Eve, Mother Magdelene, Mother Sophia, and Heavenly Mother- Mother Asherah.
The idea is to stand in front of the altar and place your head in front of the mirror to create a halo effect behind your headdress to show you as a goddess of your own reality.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
No, it has not. I have been working on two shows currently this year and meanwhile, I am three weeks away from my due date. While preparing for a newborn, I am extremely grateful for the times that I have felt good enough to continue to do what I love.
I experienced some pre-term laboring and hard morning sickness, but through it all, I still have the mindset that I put my art goals in small steps so it was all still doable. Did my shows turn out all I had wanted? No. But I sure am proud of all my accomplishments and well pleased with what I was able to accomplish through all the struggles.
To me, my motto in life is,”not everything will turn out perfect, but if I embrace my failures and keep moving forward I can accomplish much.”
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I foresee my work constantly moving towards inspiring women to tap into their true identity and push them to support other females within their own community in a loving beautiful way. I will continue providing sacred spaces where women feel comfortable celebrating each other and their own accomplishments.
Pricing:
Spoons and forks $100
Small plates $50-$100
8..5×11 prints of Divine Mothers $20
Divine Mother 36×48 $3000 each
Contact Info:
Email: nataliesmith2203@gmail.com
Website: natalieillustrates.com
Instagram: natalieillustrates
Facebook: Natalie Marie Smith
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