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The Struggle to Survive
Ed
Smith Tells the Story of Nature
vs. Modern Technology
Clashing
Story by Debra Kronowitz
Inspired by the works of John James
Audubon, artist Ed Smith focuses on the wildlife of his adopted Louisiana. “I
have been awestruck by the amazing volume and array of birds
here in combination with the explosion of industry and its
resulting pollution up and down the Mississippi River,” said
Smith.
Born in Naples, Italy,
Smith received a bachelor of fine arts from the
University of Massachusetts
at Amherst and a master’s of fine arts from
Brooklyn
College,
CUNY. He taught painting and drawing at
Queens
College
in the early 1990s. Today, he lives
Baton Rouge,
LA, where
he is an associate professor of painting at
Louisiana
State
University.
Smith’s interest in conservation began early in life when he was
an original crew member of the conservation ship
Sea Shepherd. Upon
moving to Louisiana,
his interest in depicting wildlife’s struggle through his work
came about from driving past chemical plants and seeing how
nature intermingled. “My work just sprung out of that,” he said.
Smith uses traditional perspective and abstract pattern in his
large-scale oil paintings. Through lush decoration and
well-observed naturalistic detail Smith shows the clash between
nature and modern technology. He uses irony and metaphors in his
depiction of birds and wildlife to address his political
concerns. “My work is about the inherent conflict at the
boundaries of the wild and developed worlds,” said Smith. “My
hope for my paintings is that they are visually appealing,
intellectually stimulating and tell a good story.” |
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Photos by Kevin Duffy |
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For the past two years, Smith has been working on a new series
of work called Struggle to Survive. The work consists of
approximately 60 paintings that further depict how rapid
encroachment is making survival even more desperate.
Smith’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States,
including Dartmouth College, Westbeth Gallery, New York Queens
College, Sylvia Schmidt Gallery, Soren Christensen Gallery, The
Walter Anderson Museum, and The Contemporary Art Center in New
Orleans. |
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