Marilyn Smith

My art is a reflection of who I am and how I got here. As a child, my summers were spent with my many siblings at a secluded cabin on a lake with no electricity, running water or phone. This was a formative experience. My art process shows that I am a resilient problem solver and a playful risk taker, not uncomfortable with the unexpected. The process of  mixed media painting, to me, is a joyful but high risk endeavour. What is not fun about squiggling words and lines with crayons and pencils, scraping gels into fanciful textures, dripping and flinging tar gel and paint? I love that I never quite know what will happen next as I travel the path of discovery and exploration which is the process I have chosen. The written words that are often used as the birth of each piece become buried in layers, almost lost, like each moment gets lost to another in time.

I embrace the challenge of making something that starts off chaotic but in the end, through much thought and experimentation, unites in a cohesive, expressive manner. Working with many different media, the textures, the colours, the patterns, is always exciting. My aim is for this creative energy and love of process to be evident in my work.