As a son of a sign painter and billboard artist ( Carollyn and Durrett N. Smith of Louisville KY.) I started doing art at a very young age. I would draw on any scrap piece of paper I could find and make paper sculptures almost as a necessity. My parents could not afford to buy me and my siblings every toy that came out. So I invented my own concoctions. I think the advent of Star Wars really let my imagination soar. I would try and make all those cool ships and scenes out of cardboard and paper. My parents would just go on and on to friends and relatives about what I made this week. It was truly a very creative time in my life.
As I grew older art became more of an off-shoot to adolescent insecurity and excitement. I would create shocking works or do some writing that would just about piss my teachers off to no end. It was during this time I became a fan of comic books and adventure stories. I was a big fan J.R.R. Tollkien’s The Lord of The Rings and would try and come up with my own interpretations of battle scenes and characters from the books. I also became familiar with Rock and Roll especially with Heavy Metal music I think mostly because of the cool artwork on those album covers. It was also during this time I started trying to make my work more realistic and believable.
As a senior in high school I went into the graphic arts trade at West Port vocational school and learned all about the art of offset printing and pre-press work. I spent a lot of my time learning typography and photography techniques. I really enjoyed doing photography and thought that might be my career path. However an extremely rigid college instructor of Photography decided I was unfit for a career in that field. I decided my best skill set was suited for illustration and design.
As a co-op student at seventeen, I got a job working for a silkscreen printer in downtown Louisville KY for Oates Flag Co. I started as a clean-up boy and then progressed from printer to artist in my eleven year stint there. They printed t-shirts, banners, signs and, of course, flags. It was also during this time that I went for my first formal degree in art at Jefferson Community College Louisville KY. I graduated with a two year degree in art /advertising in 1993. I continued on with Oates Flag Co. another five years then left to pursue other opportunities.
After leaving Oates Flag Co., I became the art department head of WOM USA. This company manufactured dust control mats for industrial laundries such as Aramark, Unifirst, and National Linen. This company would super impose logos and text into mats for rental purposes. I got a lot of exposure to some really great English designers and artists. It was here that I got my first introduction to Adobe Illustrator software. Things were going really well and then one bad afternoon in October of 1997 the company announced it was bankrupt. Furthermore would be closing or scaling down their US operations to a skeleton crew. I was one of the fateful left to stay behind while 85 others lost their jobs.
Another year went by and WOM was sold to Milliken and Company out of Spartanburg , South Carolina. This company had a huge textile and flooring division in LaGrange, Georgia. Milliken offered me a job in LaGrange. Seeing that I was not tied down at the time, I moved there in 1999 and got even more exposure to more advanced software. Adobe Photo Shop, Painter 9 and Corel Draw 8-11 graphic suites became my best friends. I really loved to mix it up and try out new techniques using those programs. Milliken was very interested in artists and gave me an opportunity to go back to college. I took the offer and entered LaGrange College as an art major concentrating on painting and illustration in 2001. I graduated in 2005 with my BA in Art Design form LaGrange College. I think this was the most challenging yet most productive time in my life in art. I gained a lot of real world experience from instructors to employers in the world of art. I got to collaborate with international designers from all over the world and my wisdom and knowledge grew at an enormous rate.
All good things come to an end however. I left Milliken and Company in 2006 for various reasons. I returned to my home town of Louisville Kentucky. I took a job at Home Depot, had a heart attack, met and fell in love with Dawn ( my wife ), and relocated to Indiana all between 2007-2008. Sometimes the worst and best things in your life come in a very short amount of time.
Life sure is moving fast. Dawn and I were married in April of 2009. She is my joy, my guide, my true love. I am truly happy in my life right now. I currently work at the Home Depot as a paint associate. It is my hope to continue with my art career and education. I have suffered a great many set- backs and triumphs through my life. Above it all however, I will always be an artist and I hope my work is not in vain or contrived either by others or myself. If you would like to contact me about doing a project, please feel free to drop me a line. It would be my pleasure.
Thanks for reading my bio have a great day.
As I grew older art became more of an off-shoot to adolescent insecurity and excitement. I would create shocking works or do some writing that would just about piss my teachers off to no end. It was during this time I became a fan of comic books and adventure stories. I was a big fan J.R.R. Tollkien’s The Lord of The Rings and would try and come up with my own interpretations of battle scenes and characters from the books. I also became familiar with Rock and Roll especially with Heavy Metal music I think mostly because of the cool artwork on those album covers. It was also during this time I started trying to make my work more realistic and believable.
As a senior in high school I went into the graphic arts trade at West Port vocational school and learned all about the art of offset printing and pre-press work. I spent a lot of my time learning typography and photography techniques. I really enjoyed doing photography and thought that might be my career path. However an extremely rigid college instructor of Photography decided I was unfit for a career in that field. I decided my best skill set was suited for illustration and design.
As a co-op student at seventeen, I got a job working for a silkscreen printer in downtown Louisville KY for Oates Flag Co. I started as a clean-up boy and then progressed from printer to artist in my eleven year stint there. They printed t-shirts, banners, signs and, of course, flags. It was also during this time that I went for my first formal degree in art at Jefferson Community College Louisville KY. I graduated with a two year degree in art /advertising in 1993. I continued on with Oates Flag Co. another five years then left to pursue other opportunities.
After leaving Oates Flag Co., I became the art department head of WOM USA. This company manufactured dust control mats for industrial laundries such as Aramark, Unifirst, and National Linen. This company would super impose logos and text into mats for rental purposes. I got a lot of exposure to some really great English designers and artists. It was here that I got my first introduction to Adobe Illustrator software. Things were going really well and then one bad afternoon in October of 1997 the company announced it was bankrupt. Furthermore would be closing or scaling down their US operations to a skeleton crew. I was one of the fateful left to stay behind while 85 others lost their jobs.
Another year went by and WOM was sold to Milliken and Company out of Spartanburg , South Carolina. This company had a huge textile and flooring division in LaGrange, Georgia. Milliken offered me a job in LaGrange. Seeing that I was not tied down at the time, I moved there in 1999 and got even more exposure to more advanced software. Adobe Photo Shop, Painter 9 and Corel Draw 8-11 graphic suites became my best friends. I really loved to mix it up and try out new techniques using those programs. Milliken was very interested in artists and gave me an opportunity to go back to college. I took the offer and entered LaGrange College as an art major concentrating on painting and illustration in 2001. I graduated in 2005 with my BA in Art Design form LaGrange College. I think this was the most challenging yet most productive time in my life in art. I gained a lot of real world experience from instructors to employers in the world of art. I got to collaborate with international designers from all over the world and my wisdom and knowledge grew at an enormous rate.
All good things come to an end however. I left Milliken and Company in 2006 for various reasons. I returned to my home town of Louisville Kentucky. I took a job at Home Depot, had a heart attack, met and fell in love with Dawn ( my wife ), and relocated to Indiana all between 2007-2008. Sometimes the worst and best things in your life come in a very short amount of time.
Life sure is moving fast. Dawn and I were married in April of 2009. She is my joy, my guide, my true love. I am truly happy in my life right now. I currently work at the Home Depot as a paint associate. It is my hope to continue with my art career and education. I have suffered a great many set- backs and triumphs through my life. Above it all however, I will always be an artist and I hope my work is not in vain or contrived either by others or myself. If you would like to contact me about doing a project, please feel free to drop me a line. It would be my pleasure.
Thanks for reading my bio have a great day.