Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonpaul Smith.
Hi Jonpaul, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up in a small town in North Central Indiana where craft is appreciated has given me an innate interest in art versus craft and the dialog inherent to that discussion. As a child, I always admired and watched the women in my family create beautiful things. The blending of traditional craftsmanship with modern technology surrounded me. My family also owned a small business, a liquor store, and I was inundated by the resulting consumer packaging at an early age. I found the process intriguing of how my father would display the products to the masses in organized rows and detailed color grid of patterns.
I received my M.F.A. from University of Cincinnati, D.A.A.P. with a concentration in printmaking thus cementing my love of paper. While at DAAP, I was searching for a way to battle the inherent process of printmaking and began deconstructing my prints, cutting them into squares. With these squares, I constructed large grid-based, quilt-like works. From there, the process of cutting my prints into strips and weaving them emerged naturally. While attending an artists’ residency in Budapest, Hungary, I began sourcing found materials. The paper ephemera and litter of the city greatly interested me, and I began incorporating it into my work.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Probably only a lucky few have had a completely smooth road. Like any profession my career has come with its share of challenges. In an all most cliche like manner, it is how we respond and move forward from these challenges that develop our character. One challenge for me has been the multiple roles I have to maintain. For example, the role of entrepreneur. Besides the actual creation of the work as my main focus the logistics of the “business of art”; crating and shipping work for shows and keeping up with communication, working on commissions, searching out the next opportunities, etc. Learning from and being open to these new roles as they pass through my life has only had an overall positive impact on my work and professional development.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a printmaker and tend to be most interested in relief printmaking. I am probably most known for my large-scale print-based woven paper tapestries; I consider my process to be one of gathering and disseminating information rooted in the paper scraps and ephemera of our consumer culture. As I create and gather this material/information, I begin combining this seemingly unrelated material into an almost assemblage-like form. Once one of these assemblages is created, I begin another in response to the first. I try to create a conversation between the two assemblages, whether this is through imagery or solely based in aesthetic color choices. After the two assemblage/sheets exist, I hand cut them with a razorblade and straightedge into strips. Which is then tediously hand-woven into a tapestry-like construct made up of hundreds of interwoven strips of discarded consumer packaging and hand-pulled prints. Which similarly make use of (and, in a sense, refine) pop culture imagery.
What do you think about happiness?
I enjoy any time I can get out in nature. Every time it improves my mood. I love being out in the garden and watching in astonishment at the complex beauty encapsulated in a plant as it grows. These same awe-inspiring observations are found on a great hike or walk with my wife. I have been an avid cyclist most my life. Many rides give you that slower pace of observation that can only come from a bicycle. Slowly cruising on back roads or secret urban alleys, and the little discoveries that come from both. It is that feeling of smallness while also feeling connected to the natural world that I enjoy while being in nature.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jonpaulcsmith.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonpaulsmithart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonpaulsmithartist/
