|
Amanda SmartAmanda Smart was born in The Pas, Manitoba. She developed confidence through drawing and painting in secondary school, then took Art History at the University of Manitoba. She trained as a filmmaker and journalist with a focus on Aboriginal issues at the National Screen Institute. She has sold her pieces through galleries; one large one now hangs in the Legislative Building. She produced films and learned painting techniques working as a set designer and scene painter at the Black Hole Theatre and in the motion picture industry. Amanda says she especially admires the work of Georgia O’Keefe, the colours and stylized human figures of Tamara de Lempicka, and the ethereal abstractions of Darren Waterston. Amanda currently works in acrylic and compressed charcoal on canvas. She also does ink drawings and has photographed her own performance art. Her subjects include portraits and healing self-portraits; the human figure; water; and birds, fish (especially sturgeon), and other animals. Aboriginal spirituality is a recurrent theme. In work ranging from representational to abstract, she uses bright colours to express emotion, and sometimes creates forms out of calligraphically rendered aphorisms. “I let each piece grow as I work, so there’s often a layered quality,” Amanda says. “Art has saved my life, and I’m grateful every day for the other artists and film-makers in my life and for the supportive family and community I’ve found at Artbeat.”
|