friday's child :: a day in the life of artist paige smith

i remember the first time i saw a photo of paige smith's urban geodes i nearly fell over. i was befuddled by their stunning shapes and colors and what was even more intriguing was the fact that they were created by one imaginative woman and built into the most peculiar of places around la. a phone booth, a commercial building, a pipe hole, a crack in the wall. smith sees the possibility of beauty and delight where most wouldn't even bother to look at all.

hailing from garland, texas and currently living in la, smith still maintains her southern charm. she's endlessly sweet and incredibly humble about her vast body of work. which includes graphic design, paper cutouts, handbags and even stop motion films. her mind endlessly ticks with new ideas as she jots them down in a notebook to save for later. when she recalls how her street art idea came about, she explains that one day she wrote down 'mini paper street art installments' and a couple of days later 'paper amethyst' - and so, her urban geodes were born.

it is clear in speaking with smith that she does not see boundaries in her work. there is no one medium she feels married to but instead relishes in the opportunity to find a new way to create and communicate her work. with this mindset, she has hurdled and honed many techniques and is still on the path of exploring many more. a renaissance artist of sorts. meet the artist :: paige smith.

a daily occurrence :: having coffee at Handsome Coffee Roasters in the LA Arts District

wanderlustings :: as a child, what did you like to create?
paige smith :: i used to try to invent things or rather re-invent things. i would try to make cars my sister and i could drive around out of cardboard boxes and found objects. i once attempted to make my own projector out of lights, mirrors, boxes and transparencies. i loved making dioramas! i think i've always been obsessed with making my own worlds or objects out of found materials. i was definitely always very crafty—sewing, latch-hook (remember those?), making candles, jewelry—things that were DIY so that i could actually use or play with them.


w :: how very practical! do you actually recall the first piece of artwork you were truly taken with? 
ps :: no photo in a book could prepare me for seeing van gogh in person for the first time. i was always fascinated by his work (i do love the classics from art history), and once i saw his actual strokes on canvas i literally had tears in my eyes. his ability to paint scenes with all the colors that only happen in an instant is unbelievable. it's something that most people do not grow up thinking or noticing and to me it changed the way i looked at the world.


w :: wow, that's amazing! so now we have to ask are you school or self-taught?
ps :: both. i did some fine art study while i was in school for communication arts. i took a lot of ceramics classes, screen printing, and some metalwork. i apply a lot of what i learned to projects but right now i've been building a lot of 3-dimensional sculptures and installations, which is mostly the self taught portion.

paper silhouette of a face smith created for a graphic design project

w :: are you currently a full time artist?
ps :: i am not. i've been a graphic designer for the past seven years, working in print design and now mostly web design. i started doing art by incorporating tactile and paper art into my web design imagery and eventually started full scale projects on my own, without clients.


w :: that's really awesome! so if we were to look in your toolbox right now, what would we find?
ps :: glue, lots of different types of glue, scissors, many x-acto knives, spray paints, acrylics, tape, rulers, resin, clay, metals and of course paper.

closeup of some of the shapes smith meticulously constructs when creating her urban geode pieces

w :: that sounds like quite the menagerie. can you walk us through your process; from the inception of the idea to the finished work?

ps :: this is a hard one as all of my projects come from all over the place! i do have a running list of creative ideas that i keep. once an idea sparks from something someone says, what i read in a book, or what radiolab is teaching me, i try to immediately write it down. sometimes the list items are combined to become the real project (i.e. i wrote down "mini paper street art installations" one day and the next month i wrote down "paper amethyst"—the urban geode project is born!)

i usually then tackle an idea by deciding how i want to present it or how i'd like the finished piece to be viewed. i'll create mini sets for things to be photographed or large scale pieces that will be installations or poster art. this often dictates what materials i use and the size i need to create them in. i still think like a designer and every idea is a problem in which i have to find a solution, a means to an end, in order to express the idea or what i'm feeling. 

smith at her desk absorbed in her next geode endeavor 

w :: where do you draw most of your inspiration from? 
ps :: the people around me, the places we choose to be, and of course art. i have a lot of amazing friends that are creatives and i love to see what they're creating, what inspires them, and discuss what we're all currently obsessed with. i also moved to los angeles about two years ago and the atmosphere is very inspiring—from downtown art and architecture to the beach life in venice to the wooded parks everywhere. 


w :: what would you say most influences your work? 
ps :: i'm generally reacting to my surroundings and my relationships with people. i'm very interested in why we do things socially, how we react to situations and each other, and i'm in love with coincidence, it's like magic. also, since i read constantly, i find great influence from the books i read, whether they are science fiction, philosophy, classics, or pop fiction.

smith and her tech designer head into a leather store in the garment district, downtown

w :: are there any underlying themes that seem to be present in your work?
ps :: since i'm a rather new artist, i think the themes are just starting to come out. for now, everything is reflective of recognizing my own strengths, weaknesses and thoughts. the work that comes out of me is incredibly detailed oriented, obsessive compulsive really; i'm almost always exploring what you can do with great precision and tenacity. 


w :: would you mind sharing a goal you have for your work this year?
ps :: one major goal for this year would be to do a gallery show. that's long gone for most artists, but as a full time graphic designer without a body of work, it would be a huge first step for me.

smith, her designer and her partner discuss leather option

w :: well i definitely look forward to you exhibiting! so, do you have any creative motivators you like to use while creating? 
ps :: i definitely listen to music and when i'm working on my paper geodes (folding and gluing) i'm often watching a film. lately though, i've been listening to a lot of radiolab. since my mind is often free to think, i love being able to learn at the same time as i work. i'm constantly stopping to scribble down more ideas when i listen to it.

w :: if you could effortlessly crossover into any other creative genre, what would it be and why?
ps :: i am working hard to crossover into being a full time artist. i'm truly multi-media though and want to do everything—i'm currently designing my first line of handbags and am always dreaming of doing animation, like claymation. it's hard for me to pick one thing, i'm interested in it all.

smith and her designer peruse her drawings to decide on hardware

w :: wow! i cannot wait to see your handbags! do you yourself purchase original artwork?
ps :: not yet. i do however do trades with artists for artwork. i just made a bespoke paper cut for a friend and am eagerly awaiting an arrival of a painting from him.


w :: that's a sweet deal! so what artists, living or dead, are you most influenced by?
ps :: stefan sagmeister, sarah illenberger, jen stark, michel gondry, terry gilliam. that's definitely a wide range, but as i said, i'm a multi-media person and i can't stick to one thing!

w :: wow! that IS quite an array - but amazing people nonetheless! when you're not creating, what can you be found doing?
ps :: riding my bike, taking a walk, having a sunny drink with my friends, book club (i personally have to read every single day).

a paper logo and clouds smith created which will eventually be a stop motion animation

w :: that's awesome! okay. so now we need some lists from you. can you tell us your top five songs you like to listen to while you create?
ps :: i definitely like upbeat to keep me moving, this week they are: 
1. "walking with a ghost" by the national fanfare of kadebostany
2. "go twisters" by bufi
3. "what you know" by two door cinema club
4. "i spy" by mikhael paskalev {the video is the best}
5. "ice cream" by battles


w :: i must say - very good choices - especially battles thrown in there! can you give us three movies that inspire you?
ps :: i pretty much watch children's movies all the time, but you can see that reflected in the set design/small made up worlds of my work.
1. the adventures of baron munchausen
2. labyrinth
3. the secret world of arrietty (anything miyazaki!)

smith created these tiny book cases with hand painted and numbered wooden books - which she made over 2,931 of (!!) - to be part of a large 4' x 6' installation she is working on.

w :: all endlessly awesome! and for our last list here, could you leave us with three quirky traits about yourself?
ps :: i had to ask my friends about this one, i guess my three are:
1. i watch saturday morning cartoons nearly every day 
2. my favorite hat i wear is actually an indiana jones hat from disneyland
3. and apparently it's quirky that i obsessively fold paper for hours and then put the resulting art out on the street. 


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a huge thank you to paige smith for granting us this interview and to her wonderful boyfriend, greg tuzin, for taking the lovely photos of her day.


you can see other friday's child posts here.