Jules Smith
Biography	Artwork

 

"The cityscape has interconnected space...landmarks are more like figures to me than mere buildings. The ghosts of past and future hover around, constantly shaping the present."

JULES SMITH

Educated at Birmingham Art School, 1981-84, Jules Smith's certain future as a phenomenal artistic talent was assured her securing of a coveted scholarship to Italy in 1983. Her precocious talent secured her a one-man show in 1980, and Jules has since taken part in over twenty-five exhibitions, mainly based in Birmingham.

Her close link with Birmingham is reflected in her works, which are inspired by the city. Modern urbanity represents the contemporary rhythms and connections that provide the ideal subject for her abstract work. City space is too abstract has lots of interconnected spaces.

Jules Smith - Notes on current work for 2003

In the past much of my work has been based on the visual experience of cities. These works have been essentially celebratory in nature and have attempted to depict the dynamics and paradoxes of the city life. Colour and mark making have been used symbolically to construct pieces that visually interpret and describe the abstract virtual spaces made by layer upon layer of physical, technological and emotional networks.

While remaining essentially abstract, my current work is more figurative and draws on landscape, music, cinema and architectural forms for points of reference. Colour is used as a metaphor for landscape, to suggest rather than state. The mark making may resemble musical scores as in the dessert series, or architectural forms, or the boundaries between places.

These pieces attempt to be contemplative in nature rather than challenging and the intention is to invite the viewer to offer a personal interpretation of the works' meaning. Recollection, memories of personal experiences may be evoked, long forgotten film sequences, musical passages or journeys bubble to the surface for a moment. Alien, abstract images without reference to human experience are not the intention but rather visual memories are amplified, seen a new through an immediate and direct communication with the paintings.

In all my current work colour is used as a vehicle to convey meaning and to appeal to other senses, to communicate visually ideas about sound, climate and movement. But it is very much about the viewer bringing their own interpretation to the painting, perhaps in different ways at different times. It is often that which is not said that says it all and it is in this context that as an artist I attempt to create works for the viewer to enjoy.

Jules Smith has developed a unique and highly personal form of calligraphy for representing cityscape. The pattern of human activity and communication characterised by Smith's abstract portrayals embody the constantly shifting boundaries of city and language. And like language, the work can be viewed on any levels.