TIME AND TIDE
Kathi Smith
October 2 - November 1
Opening Reception: Thursday, Oct 2, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, Oct 16, 6pm
ARTIST STATEMENT
Time and tide wait for no man. As was my experience in making this body of work. I showed up each day to a different tide, to a different light and with a different sense of self, yet anchored by the routine of painting. I’d like to think there’s comfort in that life is ever changing, waiting for no one. The new work certainly hosts it all: the shifting of tides, familiar spaces and the subtle changes, island living at its best.
The show was born out of the Mary Oliver poem “I Go Down to The Shore.” Oliver alludes to the waves moving about their business regardless of what we bring to the shore. My time on the islands is quite literally structured by the tides, silent observations of a changing shoreline and the reminder that time is elemental in nature. I meet the sea, each day, with my own work to do.
~ Kathi Smith
Born in Western Maine, Kathi Smith’s artwork is reflective of the Maine landscape. Smith invites us to join her in close observation of familiar-seeming places, places that hold personal and universal narratives. Recent subjects include Great Cranberry Island, her family’s homestead in Nova Scotia. Smith works both in the landscape and in the studio to create real and remembered worlds
Smith has participated actively in regional and national exhibitions. She is represented by Greenhut Galleries in Portland, Maine, a leading contemporary art gallery in the state. Smith has been awarded 6 significant artist residencies including a Full Fellowship supported by the Joan Mitchell Foundation to the Vermont Studio Center. She has been a Fellow and Artist-in-Residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut, and the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation in Maine. International residencies include the Alfred and Trafford Klotts artist in residence program in Brittany, France, sponsored by Maryland Institute College of Art, and the SKOPART artist residency in Greece (2026).
Smith was noted as “One to Watch” by Dan Kany in his piece Art Review: Energetic pair of painters show in Portland, May 2018 and has been included in the Art Maine 2018, as a notable Maine artist. Previous press includes Artscope Magazine, Kathi Smith’s New England, July 2013 as well as Maine Home + Design Expressive Impression, May 2016
Smith is an associate professor of studio arts and art appreciation at Husson University. She also serves as the Husson galleries coordinator and directs the visiting artist programming. She holds a BFA in Painting & Drawing, with a minor in Art History from the University of Southern Maine (2003), and an MFA in Painting from the University of New Hampshire (2008). Smith practices primarily in painting and drawing and, and has experience in ceramics, printmaking, bookmaking and mixed media methods. She keeps her studio in Ellsworth, Maine.
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