PICKING UP THE PIECES
Barbara Lee Smith

These mixed media fabric works focus on nature, the strength and fragility of land and sea,
and the cycle of decay and growth. 

Pieces of painted fabric are the remains from past work. I’ve saved these remnants for several decades, and now the treasure trove builds the surfaces of new work: patching, mending, remembering, constructing. So many ways to work with the vestiges of experience. Yes, given our present moment, the metaphor of repair and building something strong and full of life is intentional.

THOUGHTS FROM TOM STANLEY

An artist doesn’t need to be from a place, an artist needs to know how to be in a place.

These are some of Barbara Lee Smith’s favorite words from years of reading and compiling and recording words upon words and ideas upon ideas, all in her notebooks. The pages appear to be a scribbled stream of consciousness. And it makes perfect sense. Her journey has taken her from New York to Cape May to Chicago to Japan and to Raft Island near Tacoma. With her move to Durham in 2016 she located in the middle of hip warehouses and a thriving environment where an artist would know how to be. In all of her places, whether as artist, artist-teacher, artist-family member or artist-friend, her sense of self has remained a consistent presence. It has also remained a well versed and generous presence. It is an authenticity key to her work.

With this exhibit, Barbara Lee Smith shares her well-practiced process that is painting-fiber-collage . Her primary surface is the lightweight non-woven fabric Lutradur. Using watered-down acrylics, she designs and paints the surface in immediate responses. The youthful discovery of Jackson Pollock in Life Magazine was a revelation. This spirit shows itself in the rendering of non-representational surfaces on the thin fiber. They appear like dreams of landscapes, seascapes, memories from far and not so far away. An early love of music resonates with her visual experiences.  She and her work have been born out of an age of Abstract Expressionism and John Cage and innovative thinking. 

A collection of small, painted Lutradur fragments represent years of making and years of other places. Carefully stored in boxes in her studio, the bits and pieces have seen other studios as well. They are the collage elements in her process. She organizes these leftovers on the larger painted surface and temporarily fixes them with heat.  Additional layers of Lutradur are adhered to the back of the original painted surface to provide stability to a piece that is evolving into a complex composition and construction.

But now as we look at her work, our eyes need to study the next step in Barbara’s process. The memory in her hands, and a custom-designed sewing machine, now define the fragments and the painted areas with a flowing line of stitch. It is not quilting as we might think of it. This is more like drawing with thread. Though the stitch is almost undetectable from a distance, it is there and it gives the piece a physical and visual strength. On the unpainted back of the piece, the stitching appears to be a contour drawing exhibiting the beauty of textile inherent in her work. The activity of pushing, guiding and arranging the material to maneuver between the needle and needle plate is physically demanding, but a beloved requirement to produce her work. 

Barbara Lee Smith’s interest in art was sealed with undergrad classes in Art and Design (Douglass College, Rutgers University, BS 1959). Twenty years later she received her MFA in mixed media from Northern Illinois University. She is in numerous public and private collections and has been commissioned to do fiber workshop worldwide. Her book Celebrating the Stitch: Contemporary Embroidery of North America (Taunton Press 1991) presents the work of 100 U.S. and Canadian artists. The highly regarded publication documents techniques and creative ideas, similar to an actual Barbara Lee Smith workshop. Her personal goal is to help the field of textiles to be recognized as a major part of the art world.

Exhibit runs through December 23  

**10 percent of all sales will be donated to the NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund which
is administering funds to western NC artists and art organizations affected by Helene.               

Below please see some other works that can be found in the, and can be purchased at the click of a button.
We always have new works rotating in to complement the main exhibit, and the gallery is a fun resource when you need just the right piece for a spot in your home, or a special gift for a loved one.