About Erin Smith

Statement

I don’t paint myself. What I want to show is vulnerability and self-acceptance, as a person and as a mental health advocate. I want people to find themselves in the work and feel accepted, especially here in Louisiana, where talking openly about mental health still carries a stigma.

My clinical work affects my paintings tremendously, because of the conversations and experiences I have had with children and families. I have seen so much death.

Flowers can hold all of that. They can be fresh or old, new, dried up, shriveled. They can be young, or not even opened yet. You can look at a flower and think about where it is in its lifespan, and where you might feel you are in yours, and how you’re experiencing that progression. Life is always about growth, learning and evolving. Without that, we have nothing. And I love the way light works with flowers. I love the way it lies on a vessel and on the pieces of a bloom, and the glow rim lighting gives petals and leaves. It’s the same principle I used in more than ten years as a photographer.

The vessels matter to me too. In ceramics I made things that were functional and beautiful, like bowls, vases and cups, things I could use that also gave me beauty. My favorites were vases and pots for my flowers and plants. I always wanted more of them, and could not afford the ones I actually wanted. One day I want to make a series of vases to go with these paintings.

Most of these paintings are large because the work is about taking up space. No Box Left is about no longer shrinking to fit. Up close, the marks read as separate gestures; from across the room, they close into a single image.

Masking is exhausting. I do it at work, in some relationships, and in life generally, flying around as this person with a mask on. People always say they’d never guess I’d ever had depression. But most people don’t actually know me. I’ve always wanted to be there for other people, but not necessarily to have people be there for me.