AJ SMITH, MARJORIE WILLIAMS-SMITH ARTISTS
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 16
SEPTEMBER 12, 2013
ARKANSAS TIMES
BRIAN CHILSON
V ISION A R Y A R K A N S A N S
A
j Smith, who like his wife, Marjorie Williams-Smith has taught art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since the early 1980s, considers himself “blessed.” “I never had to wonder about what I was going to be when I grew up,” the master of portraits in prints and graphite, said. It was always to be an artist. What this couple, he a Queens College grad, she a Pratt Institute grad, did not know was that that a move to Little Rock from New York in 1982 so Aj could take a job as artist-in-residence at the Arkansas Arts Center would be permanent. Aj, who had been recommended by artist Benny Andrews, first said no to Arts Center Director Townsend Wolfe. Marjorie said no to Aj. Then Aj thought, “Just for a year.” He told Marjorie she could take the year off. They came to Arkansas. After the first year, they had a baby. And another. “The art community befriended us,” Aj said. And so it goes. The couple are known in Arkansas and beyond for their deft draftsmanship and approach to art. Marjorie works exclusively in metal point, a difficult and time-consuming medium that produces an exquisite line with copper and silver, especially with Marjorie holding the stylus. She took up the art form after a 1985 exhibition at the Arts Center. Marjorie’s drawings of dried flowers are meticulous and delicate beauties. Aj also draws in silverpoint, which he describes as provoking an intimate connection with the viewer, but he’s probably best known for his larger-than-life portraits in graphite, which “jump out and shout at you.” Rembrandt would be proud to own their work. Lately Aj’s been traveling to East Arkansas and his native state of Mississippi, talking to strangers, getting to know them, and drawing them for his Faces of the Delta series. As the world was glued to news of the birth of an English prince this summer, Aj said, he was celebrating the “majesty of ordinariness” that he found in such places as Marvell, where he met an 85-year-old man who was on the first amphibian vehicle to land at Normandy. The unassuming couple have worked steadily, perfecting their work, passing their knowledge on to students and enriching Arkansas’s arts scene. LNP.