Amanda Smith
amanda.smith@mnsu.edu
Assistant Professor
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN
amandasmithart.com
amanda.smith@mnsu.edu
Assistant Professor
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN
amandasmithart.com
Statement:
As a painter and avid film fan, I am
particularly interested in how the
pervasiveness of film’s spatial language
influences the way we create and read
space in other visual formats. Film is a
reference and catalyst for analysis in my
paintings -- visual information to break
apart and synthesize into new worlds of my
own invention. Rather than making direct
references to, or depicting specific film, I
create paintings that are conscious of the
influence of cinematic space -- how it
dominates the way we perceive,
remember, and imagine environments.
Though painting and film similarly present
two-dimensional images within a frame,
the logic driving the creation and
comprehension of these presentations can
be considerably different. In most actual or
artificial spaces, including painting, we
interact with and understand space by first
seeing it as a whole, and then examining
its facets. Film reverses this process. In
cinema, spaces are constructed through a
slow accumulation of details, creating a
didactic experience of location, position,
and overall structure of place. This drawn-
out and inverted approach requires an
anchor, a homogenized visual language to
orient our spatial experience.
Archetypical compositions, types of
transitions, and vantage points echo from
film to film, and have become a major
determinant in how we individually envision
or socially communicate space. I am
interested in using this cinematic approach
to organizing and reading space as a
means for constructing a painting. Looking
at relationships between representational
and abstracted space in cinema and
painting, I borrow the spatial cues normally
specific to film to inform my painting
process. I construct or collage tableaus,
informed by various spaces as portrayed in
films, as sources to paint from. Through
this process, cinematic environments are
compressed and presented in the static
space of a painting.
As a painter and avid film fan, I am
particularly interested in how the
pervasiveness of film’s spatial language
influences the way we create and read
space in other visual formats. Film is a
reference and catalyst for analysis in my
paintings -- visual information to break
apart and synthesize into new worlds of my
own invention. Rather than making direct
references to, or depicting specific film, I
create paintings that are conscious of the
influence of cinematic space -- how it
dominates the way we perceive,
remember, and imagine environments.
Though painting and film similarly present
two-dimensional images within a frame,
the logic driving the creation and
comprehension of these presentations can
be considerably different. In most actual or
artificial spaces, including painting, we
interact with and understand space by first
seeing it as a whole, and then examining
its facets. Film reverses this process. In
cinema, spaces are constructed through a
slow accumulation of details, creating a
didactic experience of location, position,
and overall structure of place. This drawn-
out and inverted approach requires an
anchor, a homogenized visual language to
orient our spatial experience.
Archetypical compositions, types of
transitions, and vantage points echo from
film to film, and have become a major
determinant in how we individually envision
or socially communicate space. I am
interested in using this cinematic approach
to organizing and reading space as a
means for constructing a painting. Looking
at relationships between representational
and abstracted space in cinema and
painting, I borrow the spatial cues normally
specific to film to inform my painting
process. I construct or collage tableaus,
informed by various spaces as portrayed in
films, as sources to paint from. Through
this process, cinematic environments are
compressed and presented in the static
space of a painting.
| "Req. Room," oil and acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, 2008 |
| "Grass Egress," charcoal, graphite, oil, and acrylic on rag paper, 50 x 109 inches, 2009 |
| "Same Test, Next Spring" oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 60 inches, 2009 |
| "Giant Green," charcoal, graphite, oil and acrylic on rag paper, 50 x 70 inches, 2009 |
| untitled, oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, 2009 |
| "Stairway" oil and acrylic on canvas, 22 x 33 inches, 2008 |