A Personal Introduction

In the mid-1980's and into the 1990's I wrote a weekly column in Salt Lake City's major daily newspaper, The Deseret News.  In all, I wrote over six hundred columns over a ten-year period before moving on to other things.  Titled *Meanderings", it was usually a perusal of what I might be thinking of at the time.  The topics would range from history (both world and local), random wonderings, humorous personal anecdotes, etc....and from time to time I would delve into very serious subjects that I happened to have strong feelings about at the time.  Basically, the column was an opportunity for me to express my views on anything I felt strongly, happily or frustratingly about.  Later, together with my wife, Veloy, we selected fifty of the columns and published them in a book titled, "Meanderings, a Place to Grow".  (You can still acquire a copy by contacting the website).

Over the years I have also kept a fairly detailed personal journal.  However, in the past few years I have not been as consistent with it, being satisfied to concentrate my expression for the most part through sculpture and, increasingly, painting.  

However, I have noticed a hankering to write more lately and have realized that this blog----which has been kept up by an assistant----might just be the best place to verbally express my thoughts.  I turn seventy in a week from now on June 16th.  I can't believe I will be so old.  I want more time in my life and I am crossing my fingers and hoping I might get it.  But I do love rib-eye steaks so much!!

I think I will have Chris, my assistant, come into the studio in the morning and take a photo or two of my working area at the Alpine Art Center to accompany this initial posting.  I also have a studio at home a few blocks away from the art center, but I have found in the past few years that I prefer to spend most of my working time in the large studio with two or three other close colleagues....Kraig Varner, Deon Duncan and Scott Streadbeck.....as well as the community working atmosphere inspired by the thirty or so employees of the Adonis Bronze casting facility which adjoins the art center studio.  I'll have Chris take a few shots inside the studio and one or two of the foundry area as well.  I'll also ask Chris to add a little descriptive note of his own to the photos in order to give you an idea of the place where I spend my days these days.

I will try to post a new blog entry at least once a week and possibly more.  I am excited to share with you some of the work which does not make its way into the art marketplace......my poetry, assemblages, collages, and drawings, for example.  This gets me excited to spend a bit more time with the kind of projects which tend to fall between the cracks.  This blog might change all that for me.  I am looking forward to it a lot and hope to find the blog to be a more fulfilling avenue for personal expression.

This is the Alpine Art Center which Houses both the Art Center's Reception and Catering business as well as Adonis Bronze Foundry.  I have my studio space inside.

My space.

Painting has grown into one of my favorite forms of expression.

A small window into the Adonis Bronze Foundry where all my sculptures are formed and finished into bronze.

The Christmas Pageant

Dennis has created a beautiful Nativity set exclusively for Deseret Book. Dennis is known for his wonderful sculptures of children so it was very natural that he chose to do the Nativity as a Christmas Pageant.

They are now in stock at you local Deseret Book and on their website here.

This is the entire set together. You can also buy the individual figures

The Holy Family

Double Wisemen

Double Shepherds

Double Angels

Single Wiseman

Single Shepherd

Single Angel

We are excited to be partnered with Deseret Book on this. They are very reasonably priced and are a limited run so they should go fast. Pick a set up from Deseret Book today.

Dennis Smith Showing Four Pieces at the LDS Museum of Art

Our own Dennis Smith is one of the featured artists currently being displayed at The LDS Museum of Art, in downtown Salt Lake City. Dennis is showing four pieces in the “Seek My Face” Art Exhibit that runs through the end of June 2011.

“The exhibit features twenty-nine American professional artists, all from various backgrounds, but sharing a common religious orientation. All the artists have been invited to create exemplary visual art based on gospel themes-especially of The Lord Jesus Christ. With sincerity and dedication, skilled painters and sculptors have expressed stories from the Bible and The Book of Mormon in new, original pictures. These new and contemporary works share insight into subjects that depict the life and teachings of the Savior.

The artists have all made great efforts to creatively express gospel principles, uniting their testimony and knowledge of the subject, together with artistic gifts. The thoughtful works stem from a project organized by Artist Guild International LLC. Many of the artists have participated in this project to express their testimonies of gospel principles.

The exhibit will be on display in the Church History Museum from March 1 through June 2011”

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/60623/New-scriptural-art-Seek-My-Face-exhibit-opens-at-Church-History-Museum.html

"Passing Cemetery Hill"

“Passing Cemetery Hill” is one of Dennis Smith’s recently completed paintings, and, according to Dennis, it is one of the pieces that best defines him as an artist. His paintings are laced with an essence of symbolism. Some key concepts in “Passing Cemetery Hill” focus on an awareness of how we all live within our own separate worlds, within our own journeying to and from home. This concept is in part represented by the separate houses tucked along the edges of the painting. Even though we are all similar to one another, we are all unique in our experience and expression. Almost everything in a Dennis Smith painting has a greater meaning behind it. An example would be telephone poles and trees, which Dennis has said become binders between heaven and earth. Another example would be how fences, ladders and rows of trees represent, in their repetition, a consciousness of time.

Dennis said, “The significance of my visual images is connected not only to the world I see beyond home, but also within home. Home and memory are the core of past experiences. Memory merges images of the past with images of the moment. ‘Passing Cemetery Hill’ is a painting rooted in the place of my beginning - it is the small community where I grew up and where I now live. I have seen much of the world, but I always come home. Alpine, my home town, has become a metaphor for that place of rootedness. In my father’s old black truck, I pass the hill in a chronological movement through life. In the foreground, childhood prominently steps forward; our mortality and eventual demise linger always in our awareness; nevertheless hope and faith drive us toward visions of immortality. The road winds ambiguously into the distant landscape where all of us wonder about our eventual destiny, both here and possibly beyond.”

Black Rock

Dennis was recently in an exhibit at the Williams Fine Art center featuring Black Rock.
Dennis had four pieces in the exhibit ranging over different times, and all of them were very well received.

Black Rock is what is leftover of a volcanic plug over looking the Great Salt Lake. This landmark has been the star of many pieces of art, ranging from photographs to paintings done in all styles and forms.


The Black Rock exhibit at the Williams Fine Art center began when Thomas Alder, managing partner at Williams Fine Art, found that many images Black Rock appeared often during research for a book he is co-authoring about northern Utah. Upon this discovery, he sent out an invitation for artists to paint Black Rock and submit their painting to be in an exhibit.

The Salt Lake Tribune did an article on the Black Rock art exhibit, and Dennis was quoted in it saying, "It's (Black Rock) a pivot point - a marker that tells you where you were in relation to home. Black Rock is a landmark in time and awareness, and all that time somehow melds together when you have a physical marker such as the one we have at the Great Salt Lake."


To read the full article visit: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/50102665-81/rock-black-utah-lake.html.csp

Upcoming Art Show

Dennis will have his work displayed at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational Art Show held August 7th and 8th. The Loveland Sculpture Invitational has become one of the biggest sculpture shows in the U.S. and we look forward to having Dennis' work there. With Dennis' unique style and captivating pieces, we know he will catch the attention as well as the hearts of art lovers and passersby alike.

If you are headed down to Loveland, CO for the show, stop by and take a look at some of Dennis' iconic work. We hope to see you there!

Forever Remember Update

Dennis has completed Forever Remember and it has been installed in Marietta, GA. We will be posting pictures of the unveiling soon. It was a pleasure to work with the Marietta Kiwanis Foundation, Inc. and we hope they and all who see Forever Remember will enjoy Dennis' work and keep in their memories those who have sacrificed so much for this country both on and off the battlefield.