Michael
Smithhammer
Over
the years, Michael Smithhammer has managed to maintain
a steady flow of work in the mediums of pen and pencil,
a variety of paint mediums, wood, ceramics, and also
photographic and digital imagery. With the ability
to work in both a ceramic studio and a painting studio,
Smithhammer finds himself lured by both worlds, often
joining the two.
Smithhammer's drawings are the micro or macro that
is inside and outside his sculptural objects. His
forms appear to be a cross between natural and manmade
objects. They include a mixture of both disorientation
and familiarity. Smithhammer would ike his audience
to become more confortable with disorientation, so
that, like the person who travels to a foreigh country,
they can enjoy being immersed in newness, in difference.
He very much wants to encourage people to look more
deeply into and beyond what they experience.
In carving the surface of the clay, Smithhammer is
attempting to take responsibility for every atom of
the form, reconfiguring the energy of the materials'
surface. He then colors it in a way that appears completely
natural, as if it was simply found that way. The ceramic
boxes start out as six drawing surfaces joined in
the simplest manner. They develop toward the forms;
Legs, torsos, and armamentariums. An armamentarium
is an old word for a container or arsenal apparatus
used in medicine and healing. All of the boxes have
holes drilled in them to enable them to be joined
into different configurations in the future.
In a Buddhist sutra there is a line that states, "The
body is the shadow of the soul." While savoring
this concept, Smithhammer sensed a connection to what
he imagines can happen for those who experience his
work. A shadow is an image created by the blocking
of light. It has no dimension. So when we truly see
or experience what our soul really is, it will astoud
us with it's infinite beauty.
In this same way, Smithhammer has only come half way
in his understanding of what he is compelled to do
in this lifetime. He creates in attempt to keep up
with the suggestions that occur to him along the way.
If he maintains the pace with a certain rigor, something
of value is brought to the surface. He cannot transmit
this value through words. It is a visual poetry and
that is in direct proportion with the degree of honest
effort exerted to unearth it.
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