smith case study answers to elizabeth questions
vaporous answers to various questions
17 may 2005

> Case Study Questions:
> >
> > 1. Where did you study? Name of college and qualification acquired.
> >
i've never studied art.
i would be classified as an outsider or primitive artist,
except my art is too sophisticated.
i graduated from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland USA
with a B.A. in English and Philosophy.
i have no qualifications for art except talent and perseverance.
> >
> >
> > 2. What sort of training did you have?
> >
none.
on the job training doing art along the way of life.
do read a lot of art words though.
> >
> >
> > 3. Did you specialise during you training?
> >
it is the specialist who will fail to save the world.
if it is to be saved at all, it will be by a Jill or Jack of all art.
> >
> >
> > 4. How did you set yourself up as a professional (or not) artist?
> >
i have worked an odd lot of artless jobs these past 42 years in order to pay
my own way so i could go my own way.
i work for Mammon for money so i can do art for free.
> >
> >
> > a. Studio facilities
> >
i live where i work so art can be done any moment - or all moments.
past 20 years, it's been this 3 floored studio loft.
5 years before that it was 3,000 square feet in an old downtown warehouse.
> >
> >
> > b. Working space
> >
living vs working space = no difference twixt the two.
all space is working space.
> >
> >
> > c. Easy access
> >
no - up on third floor with no elevator.
> >
> >
> > 5. What medium do you work in?
> >
assemblage
collage
painting
photography
sculpture
installation
poetry
publishing ArtCrimes past 20 years
webmaster of agentofchaos.com - 1,500 pages art/poetry.
> >
> >
> > 6. What is your favourite medium?
> >
the mind . . . life . . . liquid copper corrosion . . . cut out newspaper
. . . found objects . . . chance
> >
> >
> > 7. Do you work to commission?
> >
past december when i was broke, i accepted a commission. after delivering
piece and getting the money, i found he supported george w. bush's illegal
invasion of a sovereign country to steal their oil and slaughter their women
and children. so i got a job and paid him twice what he'd paid me to buy it back.
the piece is titled Circuit Diving - under the online photo, i wrote "bought back
from the collector for twice what he paid because I can not abide his low
political standards."
> >
> >
> > 8. Nature of commissions you have undertaken (if any)?
> >
the one above,
and a sculpture for the children's wing of MetroHealth hospital.
> >
> >
> > 9. Relationships with clients e.g do you negotiate with them regarding
> > commissioned work)
> >
it is done my way or not at all. i'm the artist. i do the art.
they can take it, or not.
> >
> >
> > 10. Did you do anything else before taking up art?
> >
Smith 2005
9 March 1946 / Wallace Idaho / 6' 3" / 181

1950s
farm boy cow milker chicken/rabbit/hog waste remover
hod carrier

1960s
paper boy
car thief
sailor
electronics technician
poet
USNA midshipman
artist
hippie
life insurance salesman
husband

1970s
chemist
armed robber
prison cook
bankrupt
graphic arts salesman
avant-garde theatre manager
bethlehem steel extra-man
college graduate
newspaper film/music critic
milkman
women's shoe salesman
divorced
computer operator
drug dealer
carnival laborer
clevelander
adulterer
church janitor

1980s
programmer analyst
drunk
condo owner
publisher/editor
celibate

1990s
near dead
sober
european traveler

2000s
unemployed
agent of chaos

> >
> >
> > 11. Do you, or can you make a living from it?
> >
not so far. but it could be done.
> >
> >
> > 12. If you started out again, would you take a different path, and why?
> >
no way. there's no life i'd rather have than the one i'm having.
> >
> >
> > 13. Any other comments about being an artist who exhibits work.
> >
the art/poet life has brought more interesting friends, odder adventures,
deeper seekings than the non-life would have.
most folk look to the past for their best times. i've had best times
frequently and repeatedly these 6 decades,
and i suspect more to come. art & poetry ain't a job - it's a life.
> >
smith 2005: poet 41 yrs, artist 40 yrs, publisher of ArtCrimes 19 yrs,
webmaster of www.agentofchaos.com 3 yrs.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for your time. Elizabeth


collage / assemblage

poetry / non-fiction

home

what's new on agent of chaos website

Heil to the Thief - George W Bush League Central


Smith

Comment
e mail smith at smithcrimes @-sign yahoo dot com

ArtCrimes
Agent of Chaos


Collage   Sculpture   Bio   Poetry   Contact

site map