Artist Anne C. Smith
Anne C. Smith (b. 1985, Syracuse, NY) is a visual artist based in Washington, DC, and Mt. Rainier, MD, whose work in drawing and screenprinting explores landscape, home, silence and imagination. Smith was a 2023 CARD Fellow, a collaborative fellowship program of the Phillips Collection, The Nicholson Project and DC Public Libraries.
She earned an MFA in 2015 from George Mason University, where she studied printmaking and sculpture. She has taught drawing at George Mason, the National Gallery of Art, Northern Virginia Community College, and screenprinting at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. She has participated in residencies at Washington Project for the Arts, the Kala Art Institute, and the Torpedo Factory Art Center. Her work is included in the juried exhibition, Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise, curated by Tie Jojima and Tsedaye Makonnen at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.
Smith’s work is found in collections of the US State Department, Capital One, INOVA Hospital, and University of Maryland Global Campus. She is represented by Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington, MD.
"My work explores what remains constant throughout change: how the same river shows up differently every day, how home changes shape in the imagination, or how it can be to make space from both order and chaos. In making things, I am locating myself in the flow of time and place; to hold both stillness and turbulence at the same time. The making and the made thing become my toolkit for navigating uncertainty – not for the purpose of imposing order, but to become a more nimble traveler. My practice is rooted in observations of quiet and stillness in my surroundings and imagination. I make abstract drawings and screen-prints that often suggest landscape or architectural forms: horizon lines, delicate structures built with line, or shapes dividing the picture plane, creating windows, skies and grounds. In other words: points of looking, noticing, and longing. Poetry is a significant influence on my work, and like poetry, my work has a relationship with absence or stillness that intentionally leaves the work open to multiple interpretations. My work is also informed by woodworking skills learned at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. I honor my mentor, Lou Stovall, for teaching me about not only screen-printing, but also craftsmanship, generosity, and community, inside and outside the studio."
Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.
I grew up in a suburb of Syracuse, NY, across the street from the neighborhood playground, which had a large open field at the base of a hill. It got very dark at night, only illuminated by the occasional car coming down the hill and I loved looking out my window into the darkness and just listening. It was, without having the words for it at the time, kind of a meditation and a time for quieting and tuning in.
When someone asks about my art background, my thoughts immediately go to my teachers. I feel very lucky that my background as an artist is studded with a string of great teachers who made a big impact on me. it was in high school that I realized how much I loved being in the art studio and making things around other people making things. My teacher, Mr. Niedzwiecki, trusted us to make our own decisions about subject matter and materials — his class was not assignment-based, but instead he gave us as much time and space as needed to slow down, look, make — and that really helped me discover and value my voice as an artist.
After Mr. Nied, it was Ed Epping and others at Williams College who expanded my idea of what art could be. A few years later, I found my way to Washington, DC, and somewhat miraculously to the studio of Lou Stovall, where I worked as his studio assistant. He really taught me all about being an artist — from craftsmanship at all points of the creative process, and bringing the ethos of the studio to all things. In 2012, I went to grad school, and again felt like I hit the teacher jackpot, working with people like Tom Ashcraft, Helen Frederick and Nikki Brugnoli — every one of these teachers is with me in some way when I’m working in the studio.
I graduated with my MFA in 2015, and since then have taught drawing and screen-printing classes at various places and worked in my studio, located just outside DC in Mt. Rainier, MD. My studio building is part of the Gateway Arts District, spanning Mt. Rainier and Hyattsville, MD, areas. It’s a small area that is full of so many artists, and it’s awesome to know there are so many people making interesting things all around. In the last 10+ years, I also have enjoyed other sources that feed my creative practice — from woodworking at Penland, to poetry listening through the Poetry Unbound podcast, and volunteering at the National Arboretum, not to mention my three energetic kids! These experiences soak in and usually find their way into what I’m making, one way or another.
What kind of work are you currently making?
Right now, I am working on some things in the studio that feel more like sketches. I’m trying out ideas and putting out feelers to see what emerges.
One thing I’ve been making are small collages using scraps. When I screenprint, I generate a lot of printed material that, let’s just say… doesn’t work out! But I like to keep things that failed, as long as they’re still interesting to me, to entertain the idea that I might use them in other ways someday. I always think that maybe I’ll circle back to it later on. This is one of those times, when I am using old misprints to make sketches in the form of collage. I have misprints on thin gampi paper, which I’ve been cutting into narrow strips to make lines that I then collage into little two-dimensional structures. Th structures are reminiscent of trellises because I’ve been looking at people’s gardens (and my own small garden) this summer — a little spot of joy. It feels playful.
I am also trying some new things for me in screen-printing. When I print, I often like to work with transparent colors to create lightness and also to layer them for depth. I am seeing right now how transparent I can really go. This is inspired by looking at the sky.
I live not far from the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and sometimes I will bike down to the river in the evening to see the sky change over the water, then make a print based on that observation when I’m back in the studio. This is a coda to a project I did 10 years ago, and it’s still evolving, but I’m interested to see how it accumulates this time — same river and same format, but coming from me at a different point in my life.
What is a day like in the studio for you?
No day or week is ever the same — I think this is true for most artists. I am hardworking, and at the same time prone to wandering and browsing. Unless I have a concrete project, I’m less focused and don’t always take a direct route to finished things in the studio. But I have tried to give myself some touchpoints of structure so that I can feel oriented and not lost or distracted when I go in to work.
One routine I have created for myself is to start studio time with a logbook. I have a notebook that is set up like a ledger, in which I make an entry for the day that includes a list of things I want to work on, as well as any other to-do’s or ideas that are bouncing around in my head. I also use this space to write down any things I come across in the studio as I am working, listening, or going down an internet rabbit hole… I try to write it down because otherwise, come the next day, I easily forget the thing that excited me so much just the day before! Keeping a record is a way of leaving some breadcrumbs for myself to follow.
Another structure I’ve created for myself is to identify the different modes of how I work. I see my practice as taking four big shapes: browsing (observational and receptive), researching (focused and intentional), connecting (with others), and making (hands on). This allows me to see even the time I spend doing things other than “producing” as part of my studio practice. It’s again, for me, about helping myself not to feel lost or unmoored, but to see a wide range of activity as part of my studio practice, even when I’m not physically in the studio.
What are you looking at right now and/or reading?
I am reading, a little bit at a time, some works by poets I adore: In the Shelter by Pádraig Ó Tuama, Startlement by Ada Limón, and Fear Less Poetry in Perilous Times by Tracy K. Smith. Their words astound me, soothe me, inspire and wow me.
Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)
Website: www.annecsmith.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anne.c.smith/
I currently have a work in exhibit Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise, a juried show of artists in the greater DC area, at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. It is curated by Tie Jojima and Tsedaye Makonnen. I also have a couple drawings in a group show at FJORD, which is a fantastic artist-run space in Philadelphia. I also work with a gallery here, Adah Rose Gallery in Kensington, MD, owned and operated by the wonderful Adah Rose Bitterbaum.
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