My support system is simple - people and time. The miracle of other people in your life. Kiki Smith More Quotes by Kiki Smith More Quotes From Kiki Smith When you get older, you're running out of time. You care more about trying to stay on the planet a little longer, so you can learn how to draw better! Kiki Smith running littles trying I'm reminded of the arm, and the body, and the appendage. Kiki Smith arms body I've been very lucky being in New York. While there are many things that have impacted my life, I have been able to stay here and do my own work. Kiki Smith able lucky new-york We as beings are very contradictory, complicated creatures that work in our best interest and against our best interest. In a certain way, I want my work to have all that messiness. Kiki Smith complicated want way Stained glass enabled the modern world. Kiki Smith modern glasses world Life really changes. And it gets lighter, for the most part. You tolerate yourself and others better. Kiki Smith lighters tolerate In drawing, I often think of things as flying buttresses. Kiki Smith drawing flying thinking I always thought it was a trap to fit into ideologies, and maybe that's a luxury position, but my work is a reflection of my being here. My being here is not a reflection of an idea. Kiki Smith luxury reflection ideas I first had no interest in figuration whatsoever. Kiki Smith interest firsts You start with a generic body, but I think the first wall you hit with portraiture is comprised of history and storytelling and the nature of characters - whether they are historical or coming from literature or documentation. Those are the references we have to people, besides your family, and the intimacy of portraiture is in the specifics of individuals. For me, it came out of doing things about animals. Kiki Smith wall character thinking I had stopped making figures, and then I began making images of animals in nature, which was a way to introduce the figure. Kiki Smith introducing animal way Now, it is much more difficult for young people coming to New York. But also when you're young, you have more time to interact with one another, to discover yourself with people of your generation. Kiki Smith over-you new-york people I'm peripheral in Colab's history because others were involved in media, filmmaking, and music, and I was always a studio artist. Kiki Smith filmmaking media artist When studio art started being seen as important, I joined Colab, and then I became very involved. Kiki Smith studios important art I'm not moving from an ideological standpoint. Sometimes I'm trying to make my life better. Sometimes I'm trying to make my life worse! I'm trying to find a happy medium that I can make some sense of. Kiki Smith trying sometimes moving It is very different when you age. The things that are significant, or what drives you, or the physical experience of being driven, changes over time. Kiki Smith driven different age The miracle of being able to pay attention to other people in your life, and the miracle of being in time, and to continue being in time. Kiki Smith miracle attention people I think a lot of making art is listening to yourself. Kiki Smith listening art thinking I like Betsy Ross as a model, too, the quilting bee, sitting around with your friends making art, asking what they think, so that you get the benefit of everyone's opinions and so it's not just about you in your you-dom. Kiki Smith bees art thinking Many people don't have relationships to their siblings in adulthood, or they have superficial ones. It's sort of unfashionable, particularly in America, to be close to your family. Kiki Smith sibling america people
