::::::::
Roots by Amanda Smith
Amanda Smith is a CPA.
Amanda Smith is a photographer in little
Johnson City Texas. Her photography is
simultaneously enigmatic, wistful and accessibly infused with an East Texas
aesthetic.
Nederland sits just west of Louisiana. It was founded by Dutch settlers in the late
1800's. The town has a windmill. I would imagine that most folks that knew
Amanda as the clarinet player in the Bulldog band would both marvel at and
puzzle over her photographs. She seemed
an accountant.
Black Bird by Aamanda Smith
Art sneaks up on those of us with dominate right
brains. There are some of left brain predominance
that sneak up on art. Amanda methodically
stalked art after calmly balancing ledgers and blithely reviewing tax forms. There is nothing of the familiar creative volcano
in her. One does not think of Frida or
Madonna in her presence.
Foot by Amanda Smith
Photography has always been the second cousin or
step-daughter in the fine art world, with the few obvious exceptions. However, it can be as transcendent and
emotionally evocative as any painting or sculpture. Amanda's images can simultaneously evoke
ghosts and childhood, the smell or movement of a lost Grandmother and a
cherished, forgotten adolescent prank. A
walk through the Central Texas woodlands of mesquite, persimmon, juniper and
scrub oak with Amanda becomes piney, dense -- Yoknapatawphaian. Faulkner and East Texas flash in her photos;
antidotes to hardscrabble limestone and prickly pear. Our subconscious is made of home.
Waiting by Amanda Smith
We all are spun of visions -- most in dreams, a few upon
waking.
"Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision." Salvador Dali and Amanda Smith would not be comfortable at lunch...maybe they would. Art, after all, is truly about inner visions and transcendence.
January 22 by Amanda Smith
More of Amanda's work can be seen at:
http://www.asmithphotographs.com/#home
