Mark T. Smith’s artistic career as an illustrator has included work for Walt Disney World, MTV, Absolut Vodka, Taco Bell and countless other clients.
After a “self-imposed hiatus” of 10 years, Smith is reemerging into public view with a new exhibition, “The Third Act,” at the Mills Gallery in Orlando’s Mills 50 neighborhood. The Delaware native spent the last decade creating more personal works that serve as commentary on America’s industrial complex, genetically modified food and current events.
“The first act was as a child painting and drawing because I liked it, then doing it professionally for a long period of time before taking 10 years off,” Smith, 57, said. “The show features work from the period where I was out of public view. It was around ’08-’09 until the present day. It is biased toward the newest work.”
The exhibition was curated by Jillian Pini as part of the Emerging Curator Program in collaboration with the Delaware Art Museum and the John William Gallery. In the last 10 years, the now Jacksonville-based Smith created more than 150 works that Pini combed through and narrowed down to around 25 pieces for the exhibition.
“I had been immersed in my own work for 10 years and hadn’t shown any of it,” Smith said. “I didn’t know what cool is anymore and needed somebody else to look at it to get the full picture.”
One of Smith’s recent works reflects on his travels to Barcelona, though it’s an abstraction rather than a realistic depiction of what he saw there.
“I can draw things very accurately but with this piece, it’s more about the impression when I came back,” Smith said. “In my mind’s eye, it’s about what it felt like more than what it looked like.”
The rest of the exhibition includes hand-embellished prints, paintings, drawings and one sculpture. It was Pini’s idea to put some of Smith’s sketches and figure drawings on display.
“She said, ‘We have to show these. It explains the way that you think in a really coherent way that is visual’,” Smith said. “I’m really attracted to the tactile quality of art. One of the reasons I still paint and don’t do digital is I like the smell, the sensation and the touch. Digital can’t have that.
While some of Smith’s illustrative work made in his career was crafted with a specific output or end product in mind, the artist finds he loves the process most of all.
“Working purely in a flow state, tapped into your subconscious, always yields something really interesting,” he said. “You can never be sure what the output is going to be, which is the interesting part but also challenging if you need to communicate something specific.”
Reflecting on his successful career as an illustrator and his time spent working as a fine artist, Smith said he is satisfied with the trajectory of his life.
“If I could go back and live my life again, I would do some things differently. But I would live it again from start until now 100 times over,” he said. “If I could go back, I would be in the moment a little bit longer for things. I would celebrate some of the victories a little bit differently and slow down for a sec.”
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