“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.” BodyNextAnimalConsciousnessHairDrawingProportionFeathersGeometryFurBody Change 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.” PeopleThinkingFirstsCharacterBodyLiteratureIndividualAnimalWallHistoricalStorytellingIntimacyOur FamilyGenericPortraitureDocumentationSpecifics Author:Kiki Smith
“I like that feeling when you’re making art, that you’re taking the energy out of your body and putting it into a physical object. I like things that are labor-intensive : you make a little thing and another little thing and another little thing, and eventually you see a possibility.” LittlesArtFeelingsBodyEnergyPossibilityObjectsLaborYour BodyLittle Things Book:Kiki Smith: a gathering, 1980-2005 Source: Kiki Smith: a gathering, 1980-2005
