Michael Smith

Artist Statement for March 2020: The Dance Between

In developing ideas for this series on couples, my ideas bounced back and forth from one subject to another. Reworking historical tales? Looking at positive relationships? Looking at negative traps? Joys or struggles? In the end, I looked to create storylines which were universally experienced hopefully in all relationships. Ideas of trust, commitment and communication are crucial but also have to be constantly supported and nurtured in order for relationships to grow and flourish. 

In each of these compositions, I looked to develop the interactions between the subjects both through formal elements and the entanglement of their poses. The balancing of this relative closeness against the underlining message of these stories became an exercise in the push and pull between a sense connectivity and tension.