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Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith Books

Artist

Kiki Smith is an American contemporary artist known for her sculptures, paintings, and prints. Her work often explores themes such as life, death, religion, and gender, and is celebrated for its unique style and profound emotional expression.

Kiki Smith: a gathering, 1980-2005

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“I like Betsy Ross as a model, too, the quilting bee, sitting around with your friends making art, asking what they think, so that you get the benefit of everyone's opinions and so it's not just about you in your you-dom.”

Thinking Art Opinion Benefits Models Sitting Asking Bees Sitting Around Doms Quilting Betsy Ross

Author:Kiki Smith

“Artists live in unknown spaces and give themselves over to following something unknown.”

Giving Artist Space Following

Author:Kiki Smith

“I always say I'm Catholic - but a cultural Catholic. I wouldn't say I'm a spiritual person, although I pray every day.”

Persons Spiritual Praying Catholic I Pray

Author:Kiki Smith

“I didn't start to be an artist myself until I was 24.”

Author:Kiki Smith

“I think a lot of making art is listening to yourself.”

Thinking Art Listening Art Is

Author:Kiki Smith

“As a child I prayed that my calling be revealed - but not with expectation and not with a destination. I became an artist because I didn't know what to do and I thought it was really fun to make things.”

Knows Children Artist Fun Calling Expectations Destination

Author:Kiki Smith

“I got into animals by drawing hair follicles. I liked drawing hair, and from that I got into feathers and fur, then into images of animals. The patterning is the same, but the proportions of the body change from one animal to the next. A lot of it is just geometry and consciousness.”

Body Next Animal Consciousness Hair Drawing Proportion Feathers Geometry Fur Body Change

Author:Kiki Smith

“In our family, there wasn't anything else besides art. Nothing else in the world existed. My father never spoke about going to a movie or listening to music, other than my mother's singing.”

World Art Mother Father Listening Singing Our Family Spokes Listening To Music

Author:Kiki Smith

“Many people don't have relationships to their siblings in adulthood, or they have superficial ones. It's sort of unfashionable, particularly in America, to be close to your family.”

People America Our Family Adulthood Superficial Sibling

Author:Kiki Smith

“My iPhone has changed my life - I spend hours taking photos of the sidewalk as I walk down the street. I like the casualness, that it's low-resolution.”

Hours Walks Streets Changed Lows Resolution Iphone Changed My Life Sidewalk

Author:Kiki Smith

“Prior to my father's death, I was having a hard time committing to a career as an artist, but that's not because of who he was - it was because of who I am. It's true, though, that I felt I shouldn't compete with him, and that those feelings went away after he died.”

Hard Feelings Artist Father Felt Careers Died Who I Am Hard Times Having A Hard Time

Author:Kiki Smith

“My work life makes much less sense now than 20 years ago. It's Humpty-Dumpty-like in a way; I can't put the pieces back together.”

Way Years I Can Together Pieces Years Ago Back Together Humpty Dumpty

Author:Kiki Smith

“I trust my work. It's a collaboration with the material, and when it's viewed, it's a collaboration with the world.”

World Materials Working It Collaboration

Book:Kiki Smith: a gathering, 1980-2005

Source: Kiki Smith: a gathering, 1980-2005

“If you stick to your work it will take care of you somehow.”

Ifs Care Determination Sticks Take Care Working It

Author:Kiki Smith

“Some people think or expect that you should make the same kinds of art forever because it creates a convenient narrative... I want my work to embody my inherent contradictions.”

People Thinking Want Should Kind Art Forever Creating Narrative Contradiction Expecting Inherent Convenient Embodiment Famous Artist Contradicting

Author:Kiki Smith

“It's fun, in a way, to explore what's risky in one's life.”

Author:Kiki Smith

“Our culture seems to believe that it's entertaining to teach women to be frightened.”

Believe Seems Culture Teach Frightened Entertaining

Author:Kiki Smith

“The hardest thing is remembering that you have some complicity in the things that happen to you in your life.”

Happens Remember Hardest Hardest Thing Complicity

Author:Kiki Smith

“I told the students [at Yale] we were going to talk about love - I meant love in the sense of devotions to one's work - and about half the students got really pissed off.”

Half Students Devotion Yale Pissed Off

Author:Kiki Smith

“One's self is always shifting in relationship to beauty and you always have to be able to incorporate yourself or your new self into life. Like your skin starts hanging off your arms and stuff, and then you have to think, well that's really beautiful too. It just isn't beautiful in a way that I knew it was beautiful before.”

Thinking Way Wells Self Able Beautiful Stuff Like You Arms Skins Shifting Really Beautiful New Self

Author:Kiki Smith

“I think that sense of always traveling has something to do with anonymity and privacy and pleasure in having a very clear, very reductive life.”

Thinking Pleasure Clear Privacy Anonymity

Author:Kiki Smith

“Source of inspiration. The MAK is a museum that has had a profound effect on me as an artist and art viewer.”

Art Inspiration Artist Effects Source Profound Museums Viewers Source Of Inspiration

Author:Kiki Smith

“I first had no interest in figuration whatsoever.”

Firsts Interest

Author:Kiki Smith

“You start with a generic body, but I think the first wall you hit with portraiture is comprised of history and storytelling and the nature of characters - whether they are historical or coming from literature or documentation. Those are the references we have to people, besides your family, and the intimacy of portraiture is in the specifics of individuals. For me, it came out of doing things about animals.”

People Thinking Firsts Character Body Literature Individual Animal Wall Historical Storytelling Intimacy Our Family Generic Portraiture Documentation Specifics

Author:Kiki Smith

“I had stopped making figures, and then I began making images of animals in nature, which was a way to introduce the figure.”

Way Animal Figures Introducing Animals In Nature

Author:Kiki Smith

“I'm in general a nostalgic person, but I don't know if I'm nostalgic for the 80s!”

Ifs Knows Persons 80s Nostalgic

Author:Kiki Smith

“When I was young, it was an exciting time to be in New York.”

Young New York Exciting

Author:Kiki Smith

“It was a very economically depressed time [the 80s] and because of that, there was a lot of space. Everything was relatively dilapidated, and one could live on a pretty low income. One could live well below the poverty line and not suffer immensely.”

Wells Suffering Lines Space Poverty Lows Income 80s Live Well Low Income

Author:Kiki Smith

“Now, it is much more difficult for young people coming to New York. But also when you're young, you have more time to interact with one another, to discover yourself with people of your generation.”

People Young Difficult Generations New York Over You More Time Discovering Yourself

Author:Kiki Smith

“I'm peripheral in Colab's history because others were involved in media, filmmaking, and music, and I was always a studio artist.”

Artist Media Involved Studios Filmmaking

Author:Kiki Smith

“When studio art started being seen as important, I joined Colab, and then I became very involved.”

Art Important Involved Studios

Author:Kiki Smith

“The point of art is that it always has the necessity to expand because people are inherently expanding.”

People Art Art Is Expanding

Author:Kiki Smith

“Life is much larger than how we image it, always, but society can be constricting in ways.”

Author:Kiki Smith

“I'm not moving from an ideological standpoint. Sometimes I'm trying to make my life better. Sometimes I'm trying to make my life worse! I'm trying to find a happy medium that I can make some sense of.”

Trying I Can Sometimes Moving Mediums Ideological Standpoint

Author:Kiki Smith

“As an artist, you want to have an experience. What you need to experience changes over the course of your life because your life changes.”

Want Needs Artist Courses Life Changing

Author:Kiki Smith

“It is very different when you age. The things that are significant, or what drives you, or the physical experience of being driven, changes over time.”

Different Age Driven Significant Changes Over Time

Author:Kiki Smith

“I always thought it was a trap to fit into ideologies, and maybe that's a luxury position, but my work is a reflection of my being here. My being here is not a reflection of an idea.”

Ideas Position Fit Reflection Ideology Luxury Traps

Author:Kiki Smith

“Art is a reflection of everything that impacts your life.”

Art Reflection Art Is Impact

Author:Kiki Smith

“It's just disgusting that in this society, the majority of students in art school are women, but they amount to less than 30% of what is shown in museums. That has not changed radically.”

Art School Changed Students Amount Majority Museums Disgusting This Society Art School

Author:Kiki Smith

“I certainly am one of those people who is incredibly privileged to have an art career, which happened out of luck. Then luck kept happening. Besides that, things just move along in their own weird way.”

People Way Art Moving Careers Happened Happenings Luck Privileged

Author:Kiki Smith

“Things that are very significant and important to you when constructing an identity when you're younger change.”

Important Identity Significant

Author:Kiki Smith

“When you get older, you're running out of time. You care more about trying to stay on the planet a little longer, so you can learn how to draw better!”

Trying Littles Care Running Planets Draws Running Out Of Time

Author:Kiki Smith

“Sometimes your personal life is much more significant. Sometimes your work life is more significant. Friends and family, or sometimes the general population, take precedence.”

Sometimes Life Is Population Significant Personal Life Family And Friends Precedence

Author:Kiki Smith

“I've been very lucky being in New York. While there are many things that have impacted my life, I have been able to stay here and do my own work.”

Has Beens Able My Own New York Lucky

Author:Kiki Smith

“We as beings are very contradictory, complicated creatures that work in our best interest and against our best interest. In a certain way, I want my work to have all that messiness.”

Way Want Certain Interest Creatures Complicated Contradictory Messiness

Author:Kiki Smith

“Life changes a lot. I guarantee you.”

Life Changing Guarantees

Author:Kiki Smith

“Life really changes. And it gets lighter, for the most part. You tolerate yourself and others better.”

Tolerate Lighters

Author:Kiki Smith

“I love flying buttresses!”

Author:Kiki Smith

“Stained glass enabled the modern world.”

World Modern Glasses Modern World Stained Glass

Author:Kiki Smith

“I'm reminded of the arm, and the body, and the appendage.”

Author:Kiki Smith

About the Author

Born: January 18, 1954
Known for: Artist
Quotes: 64

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Art Thinking People Artist Way Knows World Able Art Is Body

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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