Di Smith

in Zimbabwe, I have lived in South Africa since 2001 and Prince Albert from 2019. I have been practicing art part-time for about 10 years, but can now focus on it daily! As a late starter and with no rules to break, I ‘fearlessly’ express my thoughts, feelings, ideas and experiences in a wide variety of non-verbal ways.

Wabi Sabi – the Japanese aesthetic of finding beauty in things incomplete, imperfect and impermanent probably best sums up my love of found objects that I use in my sculpture and assemblage. Creating newness from old is what appeals to me. I sculpt in ceramic and more recently bronze- both representational and conceptual.

My painting, like my sculpture, is usually an expression of events in my world, things I feel strongly about. My recent landscape work is very Karoo centric, representing the essence of its openness and distant horizons – I am continually experimenting with a combination of media and materials.

All I really want is to continuously get lost in the creative process and I would love my work to evoke some thought, emotion or comment by the viewer. If I had one wish for the world it would be to have every person, create something. In order to grow, to learn, to express, to understand, to respect and to value, we need to create.