Originally written by Pat Randle and published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on May 18, 1985.
Difference between artist, non-artist more than just talent
The difference between the artist and non-artist is not just talent, said artist Harriet Rex-Smith.
It’s fear.
“When people are afraid to risk, their art reflects it,” Rex-Smith said.
The Valparaiso native spoke before a workshop audience at The Art Barn. She will present another workshop Wednesday.
Rex-Smith, who is in town for a show of her paintings at The Art Barn, shared her philosophy on art and life.
“I go around and I see people’s paintings, and I know exactly what’s going on in their lives,” Rex-Smith said.
“I don’t want to know, but I know. I can see it in their art.”
“A person needs skills and practice to be an artist,” she said.
But what sets the artist apart from a good technician has less to do with talent than with the ability to express feelings.
“Everybody is creative. There’s no such thing as an uncreative mind. There’s just an inhibited mind.”
“If you get people so they’re unafraid, they’ll paint beautifully. If you want to be a good artist, go into therapy. It will help you paint well.”
“That’s not because therapy is magic,” she said, but because therapy and art aim to free the inner self.
“The whole point of art, or going to a shrink, or going to church, is to find your inner self.”
“In the case of art, what blocks you is generally fear.
“A lot of the students I have who are married tell me, ‘My husband won’t like it.’ They need a spouse’s approval. Or they need their parents’ approval, sometimes even after their parents are dead.”
“People have to escape that need for approval in order to connect with their inner selves and become creative,” she said.
“If you’re ever going to be an artist, you’re going to have to let go of that fear of disapproval.”
It was not until she let go of the need for approval that she starting painting the way she wanted to, she said.
Rex-Smith is a self-supporting artist. Her paintings are sold through prestigious galleries, such as the Chicago Institute of Art sales gallery, the Portland Museum, and galleries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and at the Art Barn.
The 1939 graduate of Valparaiso High School has always been an achiever. She worked in advertising when she finished with art school.
“I was an art director at an agency in Chicago. Then I got married, and raised a lot of kids.”
When she divorced, she turned to teaching art and painting.
Whatever she was going, she always felt motivated to do well and please others.
“I spent a lot of years trying to avoid criticism. I felt like I had to be the best, so I couldn’t be criticized. To be beyond criticism, I felt like I had to be perfect.”
Trying to be perfect meant she was a striver, but it also meant not taking too many risks, for fear of failing.
“It helped me learn, but it wasn’t until I shucked it that I became a good painter.”
Despite a lifetime network of friendships - and the reputation - she had built up here, she decided to move away in 1977.
“I was just compelled to make a change. I think it’s healthy. Risk is good, and change is good. It’s what art and life are all about.
Now, she’s exploring art and expanding her philosophy of creativity.
“I’m very influenced by the new physics, especially the idea of the interconnectedness, the unity of things. I like the idea that each part is a reflections of the whole.”
“When Chinese landscape painters did a painting, it stood for the whole universe. Yin and Yang had to be balanced.”
“Every painting you do is like a little fragment of that unity of the whole universe,” she said.
“If I’m successful in a painting, it will reflect some of the energy of the whole thing it portrays.
“A painting is more than just a souvenir.”
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Photo Caption:
Harriet Rex-Smith demonstrates monotype painting during her lecture. Her philosophy combines the new physics, Chinese concepts on art, and psychology. She will be leading another workshop, where people will paint and participate Wednesday at the Art Barn.