A R T I S T P R O F I L E
NIC SMITH
Words by Daniel Cochrane
N
65
ic Smith is a Salt Lake born and raised 28-year-old analogue collage artist producing minimalistic pieces with retro sci-fi themes. His use of primary source material from printed media of the '60s and '70s delivers the eerie, surreal landscapes any observer would expect from an artist who lists wide-ranging inf luences such as mid-20th-century fashion, Tame Impala, Mass Effect, Dali, and Goblin Valley State Park. Those unfamiliar with the analogue art genre can think of it as "old school" pre-Photoshop cut and paste or, as Nick describes, "analogue collage is working with your hands and cutting out pieces from books, magazines, etc. and then arranging them with an adhesive. Sort of a precursor to using Photoshop." Although he has now become rather prolific and has been commissioned for quite a few projects, Nic's journey to finding the outlet to express his desire to create art was fraught with trepidation and a bit of selfdoubt. As Nic remembers, "I always admired artists of all kinds and wanted to be a part of creative projects myself as a teenager, but I admit I haven't always had the drive to create things and have had to work through moments of being too self-critical about my art. In the past, I have tried other means of expression like playing music (I had a high school band) and writing poetry/short stories (I graduated at the U in 2014 with an English degree that was mainly focused on creative writing, poetry, and theory). Out of college, I started a job with S&S and worked at their music venues every night of the week. Although I felt immensely inspired by all of the local musicians here, I kept most of my art close to my chest. I was hesitant to start my music project and just spent a few years trying to get out of my head and focus on helping other artists instead of being so neurotic." A chance web hit in 2016 was a turning point for Nic; "I was surfing online for modern surrealist art alone in my apartment when I came across the collage work of Jesse Treece. He is a Seattle-based analogue collage artist, and seeing his pieces for the first time was mind-blowing and filled me with a new spirit of inspiration. He is still active, and I highly recommend checking out his collages. Before that moment, I had never really considered visual art before because I can't draw to save my life, and I didn't think I had an eye for it. However, what struck me most about his work was that he could create an almost Dali-like surreal effect while using vintage images. So it feels both retro and new. 60s photography especially has an almost painting-like quality that I think makes it more special than the hyperrealist photography we have now. I dove into collage art after that, finding several more artists out there who do similar work and mostly lurked and geeked out on them for about six months."
ARKADE 15.1
