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Danielle
Smith-Llera came to visit us one day and Stephanie sat down and
talked to her about her work. Read below to see what Ms. Smith-Llera
had to share with us.
Steph:
What kind of materials do you like to work with?
Ms. Smith-Llera: That depends on the idea. So often the
idea will lead me to sculpture or print making. Usually is it is
narrative work it tends to be 2 dimensional like in print making
you cut the surface of the wood to make a print. Sometimes prints
will lead to sculptures. It depends how the idea grows. Then the
materials grow with it. I have primarily with fiber lately, like
reeds from Chinese brooms and wire and paper mounded on balsa wood.
It sounds kind of unconventional, but I got to that point through
one idea leading through another. I was interested in the idea of
kites and I was interested in the idea of books. Books have really
been the consistent format through out all the work.
Steph:
Where did you attend school?
Ms. Smith-Llera: I went to Norfolk Academy and had a very
conservative background in art there. I think that some schools
don't encourage artist to really explore. Often it is to generate
work for the auctions and the halls. It is very benign, colorful
and restrained. I then went to undergraduate school at Harvard University.
It has a very small art program there so I was very lucky because
we had a lot of resources and a lot of attention that you don't
get in other departments because it is a very big school. I majored
in Animation and in English. I was able to connect stories that
you tell through words with stories you tell through pictures. That
is where English and the Art merged. Then I went on and taught for
about 6 years before I went back to undergraduate school. I then
came back her to Old Dominion University and got my MFA. At each
step I was trying to connect English and Art with the visual arts.
Steph:
What made you want to get in to sculpturing?
Ms. Smith-Llera: My grandmother was a painter. As a mother
of 10 children she still managed to find time to paint. She made
things in her spare time. Like she made this. She was always making
things. She made this flower out of leather gloves. She cut them
open and was made into a magnolia. She was always taking things
and changing them into other things like alchemy. Since my mother
was raised with art, I think that is how my grandmother managed
10 kids, giving them crayons to draw with at the kitchen table.
She would also make play dough for them in the kitchen. How else
do you entertain 10 kids? The visual arts were a survival tactic
for her too. That was a staple growing up. It wasn't just a hobby
it was just the way the household was. My mother brought us up the
same way. She directed our energy towards materials rather than
the furniture or the walls. It was just second nature. I think when
you go through school you become aware of what you are good at and
what you are not good at. I became very aware that I was not going
to be mathematician, physicist or chemist. You start to gravitate
towards the things that are familiar. The visual arts were always
familiar and I was comfortable. In some ways it was a retreat into
something that was safe but it was also something that was part
of my upbringing.
Steph:
How long have you been doing this?
Ms. Smith-Llera: Since I was big enough to hold a pencil
and crayons. I think like most of us. I believe everybody starts
drawing when they are little kids. They are constantly making marks
on things. Some kids are encouraged in that direction and some are
encouraged in other directions. It was very much development from
that point. I think when kids start to write they stop drawing unless
they are encouraged to because they become more efficient in making
their ideas known in words. We kept making pictures at home and
I believe that is why I stayed interested. I think everyone has
the ability. It is just that some choose to develop it and others
don't.
Steph:
Does the art business run in the family?
Ms. Smith-Llera: The word business is interesting because
it has never been for profit. All the family members involved in
it have never made a living off of it. It is always something you
do for yourself. How do you make a profession out of it? That is
where teaching comes in. You can go the commercial art route and
try to sell yourself to galleries. That life is a very difficult
life. Galleries take 60% of any profit you make on your work. You
only keep 40%. They often bulk buy the things that you make. It
is a very difficult life, that of a commercial artist. Teaching
is a really wonderful way to stay involved in the visual arts without
having to really change the way you do things.
Steph:
What other areas of art are you interested in?
Ms. Smith-Llera: Art History. It is very relevant to know
what other artist have done in the context of what you are doing.
I am also interested in illustration and combining visual narratives
with written narratives. I used to be in animation and made a couple
of commercial films. I am really just interested in making marks
on paper. Today you have to know a lot of technology and computers
to do animation and that is not what I am good at so I am sticking
with pencil, charcoal and materials you just hold in your hand.
Steph:
Does your work have any special meaning to it?
Ms. Smith-Llera: That is a good question. I hope so. I
know it comes out of certain things I would like to say. The meanings
often come out of literary concepts like right now I am working
with the idea of a "leap", leap as a metaphor. I have
been working with horses and the human body and the idea of something
jumping and leaping and reaching the ground again as
sort of a symbol for what we all try to do. To get off the ground
literally and then you have this moment where you kind of float
and reach back and hit the ground again. It is this dramatic metaphor
that I see. I have been working that out in many different ways.
Sculptures that leap and are suspended, books that unfold and show
motion transformed, leaping and hitting the ground again. An idea
like that is what I am working with. It is a very general idea but
becomes very specific when I begin to work it out with reeds or
with charcoal or with Xerox toner, which I have been using a lot,
or crayons. The idea always evolves.
Steph:
Did someone that did art make you want to do it?
Ms. Smith-Llera: It probably is through the grandmother
and mother relationship. I have had art teachers who have been interested
in what I am doing but I think the biggest impact has been through
my family. I approach to art in the United States is very different
to the approach to the arts in Mexico. People use clay and fiber,
they knit and make textiles and food is something that is prepared
in an artistic way in Mexico. I think that is considered crafts
in this country. You may notice you can go into a gallery and you
never see a whole shelf of ceramics or clay very often. It is considered
low art. Here it is very much about what is high art. Someone here
would consider this a craft because it is made of fiber and it is
not painting on canvas. I think I have been influenced by whatever
this craft world is. I think that affects my artwork. I don't think
that art is just oil paint on canvas. I think it can be any other
thing.
Steph:.
What is your greatest piece?
Ms. Smith-Llera: The one you are about to do because you
have not made it yet. It always seems when you are working on one
that you are going to solve all the issues on the next one. That
way you think on this one you are going to solve all the issues
from the last one and so on. So you never get there. There is always
this process to get there, which I think is the artistic process.
 
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