THR Artist Spotlight Series: Abby Smith
“…don’t let your feelings get in the way of receiving feedback and critique on your work.”
The Headlight Review is honored to interview its first selected artist for our Artist Spotlight series, Kennesaw State University Alumni: Abby Smith. Ms. Smith is an artist based in the greater Atlanta area who creates digital illustrations, character concepts, and abstract watercolor paintings. She holds an Associate of Arts degree, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with a concentration in Drawing and Painting. Her work has been exhibited at the Westside Cultural Arts Center, Kennesaw State University, Worthmore Jewelers, and the New York Academy of Fine Art. Our art director Katie Angelopoulos met with Smith at a local Starbucks, where they both were able to enjoy their coffees at a cozy outdoor bistro table and chat.
Katie Angelopoulos: How and why did you first get into art? Was there a defining moment?
Abby Smith: I was drawing as early as I can remember. I would just draw a big circle with lines in it – I was drawing bird nests right away. My family is filled with natural artists. My mom and dad like to draw, and they nurtured that creativity as I grew up. They never expected me to do something more practical growing up. I was the first to complete college in my family. They were just happy I was doing what I wanted. I had a knack for storytelling and drawing all the stories I came up with. They were happy I had direction and never had any doubt about my passion.
KA: What is the most alluring aspect of being an artist for you?
AS: It’s a way of taking in and reconciling the world around me. Wheels are turning on the inside and I use my art to put it on paper. It’s a combination of seeking knowledge and understanding the world around me. You can only learn so much from your parents, you have only so many avenues for yourself like branches on trees, so art is one of those branches that helps you understand your self-better. And also experimenting is important.
KA: What’s your driving motivation with being an artist?
AS: It feels good to make something that doesn’t already exist – a drive to create. It’s cathartic to take what’s in your reality and put it on paper. Like a visual diary. Self-therapy.
KA: What inspired this particular body of work?
AS: I had been creating a lot of academic realism which was fun and I was okay with, but I didn’t find it exciting. I didn’t want to just making something I was seeing. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to try making something ugly! I knew if they didn’t turn out okay it was fine because I would be making quite a few of them and it would be easy to replace them.
KA: If you could summarize the kind of artist you are or kind of work you produce; how would you do it?
AS: If I were to base what I paint on something physical it would be on viscera. It’s so cool and weird and disturbing and awesome. We are hairless animals, with a society, and souls and we take it for granted how weird and wonderful and unique we are and what we are capable of.
KA: What are your goals as an artist?
AS: I feel like my goals are not grand. I want to create a body of work that after I’m dead, someone sees it and goes, “What was going on, here?” and they’ll fail without context. I want to make stuff that people see and see their own meaning it. I want to make people think and connect to people with my work. And I want to use art as a surface that explores that.
KA: Do you have any advice for future or current artists?
AS: Don’t take yourself too seriously. Discover old work you thought was bad and find something valuable about it later. Don’t be afraid of making something ugly. Art is something that can be inconsequential. You are really just making something on a surface and you’re not going hurt anybody by making it. You have everything to gain from just trying.
KA: Do you have any closing remarks?
AS: Yes, above all else: don’t let your feelings get in the way of receiving feedback and critique on your work.
More of Smith’s work can be viewed on her website here.
