Meet Minnesota-based Artist Alec M. Smith
ALEC M. SMITH is a sculptor based in Saint Paul, MN. Visit his website: www.alecmsmith.com
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to St. Paul?
ALEC M. SMITH: I moved around as a kid. We lived in five different areas, including a stint in New York. Now I live about two miles from the house my parents rented when I was born. I have been living and working from my current house for about 17 years.
How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist?
I understand myself as an artist. I have had the privilege to create artwork for the Catholic community and these experiences have been rewarding in many different ways. I value tradition and precedent in art and I think this has made my work attractive and fitting in sacred spaces.
Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?
I have found patrons, mentors, and collaborators who are teachers within the Catholic community, in one facet or another. It's interesting to me because I never enjoyed school. I always wanted to be doing something else. Now as an adult, I feel like I can communicate with teachers, and it's through these relationships with teachers that I have produced my most meaningful work.
Where have you found support among your fellow artists for your Catholic faith?
Creating sculpture tends to be lonely work. It's not like being a musician where you can collaborate in real time to make art. I know a few artists whom I regularly draw the figure from life with, and I know even fewer practicing sculptors. I know they are out there, but I don't really cross paths with them.
How can the Church be more welcoming to artists?
Artists, by and large, are drawn to communicate about the zeitgeist of our time and what is coming around the bend. There is a balance between how we cleave to traditions through narrative, and the ability to have the mental flexibility to continue to grow within, and along with tradition.
How can the artistic world be more welcoming to artists of faith?
The artistic world is fractured and split, just like the rest of society. I hold capitalism and materialism to blame for breaking the cyclical path of a gift economy, but this is only my opinion. The artistic world is THE public domain. It is a tether to the sacred in life. The challenge for artists, regardless of creed, is to speak in a language people can respond to emotively. I would consider the artistic world to be like air. Art is something that can cause you to consider each breath.
Where in Saint Paul do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?
I find spiritual replenishment in the green spaces within or outside the confinement of concrete and the mechanical din of the city. I crave a quiet place where I can hear the birds, water, and breeze. When I can hear these elements, I can sense the three-dimensional space I am in. Sculpture is equally about the space around the sculptural object. I find fulfillment when I can feel space. When my work begins to close in on me, I need to find a little space outside of my projects so I can rejuvenate and go back.
Where in Saint Paul do you regularly find artistic fulfillment and community?
I find artistic fulfillment with the collective groups of artists who are dedicated to sketching the human figure from life. I am lucky to live in an area where this tradition is thriving even through the current pandemic. I have found community at the studios where I join other artists in life drawing. It's where I can come out of the confines of my studio and still talk and focus on my artistic interests. I guess it's like a shared mental studio space, without having to share a studio.
What is your daily spiritual practice?
Drawing. I try to draw as much as I can. My hope is that the more I draw the more likely my thoughts emerge on the paper through drawing.
What is your daily artistic practice?
My artistic practice comes down to routine and repetition. It's a work in progress. I draw the human figure from life and imagination. For me it's the callisthenic of the craft.
Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist. What happened, and what brought you the most joy?
A good day for me is when I get to a point where I can see the sculpture that I am working on before I have actively sculpted it. When I can't see it through my mind’s eye, I have to go searching, and that can be painfully slow. There is equal joy for me when I can imagine the sculpture prior to actually sculpting it, and stumbling across the sculpture through the slow slog of searching for it.
How do you afford housing as an artist?
I make a living by working on either commissioned sculpture projects or through sculpture contract work. My commissions tend to be large bronze figurative work. The contract work that I do tend to be digital sculpture. The digital sculpture models that I create are used to make physical sculptures of all sizes, like an eight-foot tall gorilla that was temporarily placed across from the Wall Street Bull in NYC.
How do you financially support yourself as an artist?
I create sculpture for people who need a sculptural object for a variety of purposes, whether it's through a traditional physical material or a digital model. I am lucky to have great clients to work for. I think these good working partnerships have been paramount in expanding my client base through referral.
What other practical resources would you recommend to a Catholic artist?
As a visual artist who focuses on human figurative art, I can't speak highly enough about open studios where artists sketch the human figure and share the cost to pay the model for their work. These "figure drawing co-ops" have been the basis of my education as an artist. They are not a class or have any instruction. The only instruction is the lessons you learn from studying the human form, and if you're lucky you have a conversation with an artist who is older than you and glean a tidbit on how and where art has influence their life's journey.