Richard C. Smith
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Choice of materials is crucially important. Though their value to him is judged
not by shiny newness or expense, but by the ability to serve as conveyor of
meaning. “I like to use old and found paper,” he says, “I don’t feel right about
using new paper. I’ve had people buy me nice paper and I can’t use it. I don’t
feel the same about it. Part of the essence of the works is giving something
another chance. Maybe its because I’ve had more than my fair share of lucky
breaks.” One of Smith’s favoured drawing surfaces is a thick, brown paper,
used to wrap bananas while in transit from grower to store. Rescued and flat-
tened out, these sheets present a ground resilient enough to endure the insis-
tent physicality of his technique, allowing intensely subtle images to emerge.
Similarly, the wood used for his sculpture consists of found pieces, from fruit
trees, to acacia and oak; hard, close-grained woods that are demanding to
carve, but lend themselves to the subtle detailed results he desires. Further-
more, the wood can’t be any old piece. It must “talk” to him. “Not literally,”
he says, but awakening an intuition in him: “I’ve got a big feeling for it, you
know.” A large piece, All Seeing (2014) is a case in point. The core element is
a piece from a hundred-year-old pear tree from France. A nearby barn had
recently burnt down and though not itself incinerated the heat from the fire
had killed the tree. “When I was there last year,” he says, “I picked up the
wood and brought it home. I felt a lot for it. I Wanted to give it another
chance; another life.”

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