Stars Above a Tree: Kim Smith on her series in display at Think Round

Sky on Panel Series: Stars Above a Tree

by Brenna Parker

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Kim Smith was born in America, but spent 10 years growing up in Germany. She travelled a lot throughout Europe, and her mother was interested in antiques, flea markets and museums. At an early age, these were ingrained in Smith, and have become a primary subject of her artistic work.

She is mostly influenced by German and Austrian art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and feels that working with antique and vintage materials serves to connect the viewer with a feeling of authenticity of old Europe and that of her early childhood.

Smith has acquired three college degrees: design, economics and an MBA. Although she didn’t study or work on art at that time, she had always been interested in it. During her undergraduate career, Kim worked in a picture framing shop surrounded by artists that she admired.

She went on to start her own business reproducing and selling antique prints to retailers across the country. With all of the extra scrap material from her business, Kim started to make collages of her own. 20 years later, she still enjoys the creative process in her Hunters Point Shipyard studio in San Francisco.

Think Round’s 3D Virtual Exhibition, Pieced Together, features a unique series of 14 collages contributed by Smith. Her process includes meticulously cutting and arranging the elements in her collages prior to gluing them down. Sometimes the arrangement process itself will take weeks or even months to finish, as Kim moves pieces around until she feels it looks complete.

Within her series, she has six spiral collages made up of 100 pieces, each telling a story unique to the viewer.

“If you want to trace a story of your own you can, if you want to just look at them and travel from the inside to the outside, you can” Smith says.

People who own these pieces tell Smith that every time they see them, they find something new to enjoy.

**Kim Smith - Spirals Series: Oval Large #1 - Midnight**

**Kim Smith - Spirals Series: Spiral Round - Blue Bird #1, Paper**

All of the material used for Kim’s Aldine series, spirals and sky pieces comes from antique books from the 1870’s. She appreciates that using the same source material helps keep a sense of consistency throughout the work.

When asked about where she gets her rare antique prints, Smith mentions, “It’s a process of discovery.” Whether it is flea markets, antique stores, or estate sales, Kim Smith takes the time to search for her perfect foundation.

Think Round’s current 3D virtual exhibition, Pieced Together, features four Hunters Point Shipyard collage artists located within the San Francisco Bay Area; Mary Southall, Marc Ellen Hamel, Heidi Hardin, and Kim Smith.

Don’t miss a chance to see Kim’s thought provoking and intimate collages featured in Think Round’s current exhibition, Pieced Together.