Harold Smith: Keeping the Lights On

Photograph by Rachel Von

HAROLD SMITH

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON:

KANSAS CITY ARTIST HAROLD SMITH TALKS ABOUT INSPIRATION, PROCESS & THE BUSINESS OF ART WITH CHRISTIE HODGEN featured artist | summer 2022

Harold Smith is a Kansas City, Missouri-born and based visual artist whose internationallyexhibited and collected work includes painting, collage, mixed media, performance, video, sound, and assemblage.

His broad practice addresses issues of the complexity of the black male experience in the Western world through exploring the tension between Westernized societal perceptions of and attitudes toward black masculinity, and how these perceptions and attitudes impact it. In his “Man of Color” series, Smith addresses these issues through his use of color, stroke, texture, line, and space.

Smith’s practice is grounded in the social commentary tradition of figurative urban expressionism embodied by artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Kerry James Marshall, and others. His usage of clashing palettes and aggressive strokes creates a visual incarnation of the issues addressed in his work.

Primarily a self-taught painter, Smith received a BS in Computer Science from Union College, and a MAT in Multidisciplinary Studies from Webster University.

Smith’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions, and included in group exhibitions at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the American Jazz Museum, the Charlotte Street Foundation, and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Christie Hodgen: The work we featured in Volume 88 No. 1&2 is from the “Man of Color” series. When did you start this series, and are you continuing with it?

I’m wondering if some of the work I’ve seen lately on your social media, which seems a bit more abstract than the pieces we ran, is part of the series, or something new? What are you working on these days?

periences in a blue-collar home, people I grew up with, the blaxploitation films I watched as a child (and still watch).

I’ve been inspired a lot by jazz and blues music . . also soul music and 70s R&B. I also find some inspiration in Rachmaninoff. Artistic influences include Bob Thompson, artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, Emil Nolde.

Harold Smith: To be honest, I think all of my work has been a part of the “Man of Color” series . . . from jazz themed and blues themed. I did start naming the series “Man of Color” in 2004. I am continuing it and I think I will always be engaged in it. My newer work is more abstract, more fluid . . . but still part of the series. Maybe kind of like John Coltrane’s music became more abstract as it evolved. I have recently completed some larger works in the series that I am subtitling “Complex Narratives.”

CH: Can you tell us how an individual painting starts for you? Are you working with models, or working with images you pick up in everyday life, or working from imagination, or some combination of these things? What kinds of changes do you make to a painting as you go along, and how do you know when it’s done? (Writers are always asking this about stories, I find . . . )

CH: Can you tell us a bit about how you got started with painting, your influences and early experiences? Do you have any other influences besides visual artists? I know writers are often inspired by visual art and music and wondered if you’d ever gotten a painting out of a song.

HS: My first recollection in painting is in kindergarten, my first “serious” endeavors were in the 1980s. My influences were my childhood ex-

HS: A painting starts with me using my tablet and Google docs to record my idea and concept including composition, color scheme, etc. ( I use that function where I can just talk and it types). This often happens in the middle of the night, which is why I keep the tablet by my bed. Then, when it is time to create it, I refer to what I said and make the sketch based on what I described. If there is a colored background I do that next often around the sketch. Next, I get out the colors and set them out and apply them in the spaces (or mixed media materials) according to the plan That is pretty much it . . .

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Work in Progress

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Man of Color Series

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CH: From the outside, the “art world,” I guess we’ll call it, seems to operate by a mysterious set of rules, with a lucky few artists rewarded handsomely and the rest left starving, as the saying goes.

What have you observed as an insider in terms of how this all works, and what would you like to see changed if you could?

HS: During the Great Depression, the WPA provided opportunities for artists to create and be paid from tax dollars. I wish there were more public opportunities for artists and pathways to be able to make a living as an artist.

On success, Duke Ellington once said something similar to “Success is doing the right thing, at the right time, at the right place, in front of the right people.”

I think that a lot of artistic success is when an artist’s message, style, and even persona intersect with the current of art appreciation at the time. I think of the jazz musician Albert Ayler. He died in relative obscurity but 40 years later his music found a new audience. I think every artist has an audience. For some, that audience may not even be born yet . . . Like anything that involves money there are factors of politics, market manipulation, political correctness, etc.

CH: I’ve been interested in your Instagram posts about the “business” of art—selling work on ebay, applying for residencies, etc. Can you give us some insight on how artists make a living?

One thing that surprised me when I took the job as editor of New Letters

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was how much time I was required to spend applying for grants—it’s like if you don’t have a good head for this kind of work, you can’t survive.

HS: It does seem that the financially successful artists are also very bright in terms of strategizing. Some artists support themselves primarily through gallery sales, some through private sales, some through commissions and public projects. Residencies and grants can provide a baseline of funding to keep food on the table and the lights on. Some charge speaking fees and receive honorariums. I think that artists that are considered less “commercial” and more “academic” rely more on writing, speaking, honorariums, grants, etc. More “commercial” artists that are not seeking to be in museums but live in high-traffic places can make a living with walk-in galleries (like the ones on King Street in New Orleans) CH: You’ve received some exciting grants and awards lately—can you tell us a bit more about them?

HS: The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant is designed to “help artists to create new work, purchase needed materials and pay for studio rent, as well as their personal expenses.”

I have also received a MacDowell Residency. For 3 weeks, I will be at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire.

MacDowell “provides essential support for emerging and established artists by bringing together diverse,

Untitled, 2020

upscale furniture boutique close to 31st and Main. Museo is not a “gallery” per se, but I see it as an opportunity I’m always applying for opportunities to let some out to play until the next that I believe align with my work, so exhibition. They will be there for a few hopefully there will be more. months. multidisciplinary talent to exchange ideas and pursue creative work.”

CH: Locally, your work was recently featured at the Nelson Atkins museum.

Where else can we look forward to seeing your work in person?

CH: We’ve loved having the opportunity to feature your art and have received such an enthusiastic response, both from local and national subscribers.

HS: I have 3 pieces in the collection of We’ll be following your work going the Nerman Museum of Contemporary forward and hope we get the chance to Art. Of course, I have a studio at Studios feature your pantings again. Thank you Inc where I do my work and today, I for taking the time to talk with us. hung 6 newer works at Museo. It’s an

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