13 minute read
Living Outside the box with Artist Jill Smith
Visual Arts — Issue No. 30
Driving up to the Smith homestead I was greeted by what Mr. Smith called their welcoming committee — two large German Shepherds named Nicky and Kalli. As the fur flew and wet noses inspected me, I had the pleasure of meeting Jill Smith. Her ready smile and relaxed demeanor put me at ease as she walked me to a place on her property she likes to call “The Point.” Sitting on 2.5 acres, a creek runs through their land, slowing at a small pond. The Point is a mini-peninsula jutting into the pond and beyond that, a waterfall adds its own laughing, natural music to the area. Well maintained, colorful, and full of life, it is lovely — and a perfect reflection of the woman who lives here. M.J.: Jill, please tell our readers where you grew up and how you came to be in Spokane. Jill: I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota but since the age of three grew up in the Pacific Northwest — in first the Portland area and then Bellevue, Washington. After graduating with an art degree from the University of Puget Sound I married my husband, Doug, who was a pilot in the Air Force. He was transferred to Fairchild and after he left the Air Force we couldn’t think of a nicer place to be than Spokane. We have been here ever since.
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M.J.: What first got you interested in art? Jill: I came from a very creative family who always encouraged me to appreciate art and express myself. My parents owned a photography studio and my dad was an excellent photographer. My mother specialized in hand painting photographs (way before there was color photography!).
My dad instilled in me the passion to create — as a business, hobby, and way of life. From him also came my sense of humor and a lifetime mission to make people smile! Mom, an avid cook, whose true talent was bringing people together over food, gave me the desire to feed people both in body and soul. They made sure I always had the “tools” to create art myself.
I have always had a fascination with working with my hands and with the earth. When I was three years old — you know, back in prehistoric times — I had a sandbox. I’d play in there and make things. Being a true Taurus, I’m very much a child of the earth and as stubborn as they come, so my parents were not surprised when I grew up to be a clay artist!
M.J.: You graduated from the University of Puget Sound? Jill: I have a bachelor’s degree from the University of Puget Sound with a major in pottery and a minor in both printmaking and psychology. I also have a master’s degree from Whitworth University in Art Education, with a secondary certificate and a minor in counseling and guidance. I taught pottery, printmaking, and intro to art at Whitworth for several years. But I really believe most of my clay lessons came from just having my hands in clay and making literally thousands of pots!
M.J.: I understand you also breed horses. How did that come about? Jill: At the root of me, is a clay artist but I also have a broader view of what it means to live a creative life.
Sometimes we limit ourselves thinking we are only creative in one sense. That can keep us confined within a box of our own making. We have to step out of that box. I’ve learned to live outside of it and that has enlarged my life as a creative person.
I analyze myself quite often (Jill is grinning widely as she says this); it must have been all those psychology classes. But early on, I knew my life mission was to live a creative life and make people smile.
When I became determined to live a creative life (no matter where it took me) it eventually lead me into breeding horses. It’s a creative endeavor of matching up bloodlines, studying pedigrees and horses, and what goes together.
My dad’s lessons in photography have helped me do all my own horse sales pictures. My mother, beyond being a good cook, was also a very good writer and from her, I acquired fairly decent English skills and have become a writer myself.
I started writing about my stallion, Commander, for a local horse magazine. He starred as the talking horse and I would write articles that presented a humorous look at what goes through a horse’s mind and the exasperations of the cowgirl (me) who tries to deal with a talking horse! Many of my stories have been published.
Writing has also flowed into my passion for food and again, that desire to make people smile. Years ago, a friend and I created a specialty food company, Buckeye Beans & Herbs. We thought we’d just have this little fun company but six months into it she had some personal issues so I bought her out and hired my husband. During that time I developed a knack for writing farfetched food fables and together we created a catalog that, along with the bean mixes, featured the Adventures of Black Bean Bart and The Pinto Kid. They sort of galloped through the catalog telling tall tales from the ranch. Those fables became very popular and because of the rate of return from our catalog we were named one of the top food catalogs in the U.S. by the National Catalog Association. In total, I (we) owned the company for 16 years. We also ended up growing that little company into a seven million dollar a year international award-winning company.
M.J.: Do you still run the company? Jill: No. We sold the bean company years ago. But I missed it. I missed food. Like my mother, I enjoy feeding people. That’s who I am.
My mom was an avid cook. Not a gourmet cook but a GOOD cook. So, three or four times a week somebody else would be at our dinner table. We’d ask them what they do when they aren’t working and they’d get excited and tell us all about themselves. They would always tell stories about living life, not politics or sports like so many people talk about. Or, of course, the virus now. So I grew up watching people connect over food and stories. We truly broke bread together and shared experiences.
I guess that’s why (a year ago) I launched another specialty food company, Cowgirls Cookin’, which creates seasoning mixes for soups, chilies, and entrée dishes. It again features farfetched food fables from the Cowgirl Ranch and this time I also became a decent package designer using my computer to create some of the package front pictures. Other pictures came from some of my good art friends in Spokane, Gordon Wilson, Ric Gendron. Melissa Cole, and Debbie McCulley.
M.J.: *Half joking* Art, horse breeding, and a food company. Anything else? Jill: Yes. Another endeavor I’ve done for the last 10 years (this would have been 11 if not for the virus) is hosting a retreat at my ranch for women veterans. With two cowgirl friends, Shannon Morse and Lou Ratcliffe, I started a retreat called “Women Warriors & The Cowgirls.”
The first year we were almost rained out but we had 15 women veterans show up and it has continued to grow since then. Last year we had 44 women veterans from all over the Northwest. They come on Friday and leave on Sunday. We rent the Greenbluff Grange to use as our barracks. The Red Cross supplies cots and the Valley Vet Center helps with counselors. We do this to honor and recognize them.
I am the Master of Ceremonies but I prefer to call myself the Mistress Cowgirl. We run the weekend very humorously. We blow bubbles, play kazoos, and feed the ladies very well. They ride horses and take art classes as well as cooking classes. With the counselors and activities, it’s been a great way for them to connect and heal from things that happened during their service. It’s a lot of fun and we’ve changed lives. I don’t know how many times I’ve had an attendee come up to me and say, “This is the first time I’ve laughed since I got back from war,” or “It’s the first time I’ve connected to other women vets.”
Many times female veterans are overlooked and when you mention it to people they are usually horrified they didn’t even think about it. They then really want to help so our event is funded by donations. I also recently applied for a SAGA grant from Spokane Arts and I’m happy to say I just received that grant. It will allow me to do eight classes in clay for women veterans who can’t spend an entire weekend away from home or work. It’ll be called Clay by the Creek and over the next year, I’ll be working with the counseling services and putting together workshops that will be free for female vets. I’m hoping to offer two classes this fall, but I’m still putting it all together and I’m super excited about it!
M.J.: Wow! You are a diversely talented and busy woman. Jill: Clay is still my anchor in life. Most of my pottery career was spent making utilitarian pottery. I enjoyed making cups, plates, and bowls because of the intimate use it would be serving. Think about it, cups are brought to the lips. People are fed from plates and bowls. Memories are made over the dinner table or when breaking bread with someone. I enjoy that particular idea but again I ended up having to step out of that box.
For years, all I did was make utilitarian pottery until one day at my ranch a three-day old filly and I slipped ... I like to tell people we were trying to do the Texas Two Step, only I was doing the one-step and she was doing the three-step and we got our legs all tangled. We went down and all I could think of was not to let her head hit the ground so I put out my hand out to stop us. She was fine but I broke my wrist really badly.
My doctor, when he looked at it, asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was a potter and he said, “Well, you won’t ever do that again.”
Wonderful bedside manner, huh? So I got my wrist set, went home, and a couple of days later I sat in my studio and cried. But then that Taurus spirit came out and I thought, “Well, I’ll show him!” So I glanced over to the slab roller and realized I can do that with one arm! It sent me into a whole other part of my career because it made me into a sculptor as well. Now, I probably do just as much with the slab roller and flat slabs of clay as I do on the wheel.
**Yes, her wrist healed enough to use the wheel again. Yay!**
With the slab roller, it’s all about texture. It’s about pushing things into the clay. It’s so receptive! I’ve used leaves, rocks, and anything I can find texture-wise. Home Depot and craft stores have become a wealth of ideas about what I can push into clay, from mesh to screws and more. It started me into the realm of making “fossils of the future” and more artistic pieces. Lately, I have also written farfetched fables about animals and nature and expressed pieces of those stories in clay totems and columns. Working with the slab roller gave me a whole different look at clay than I’d have had if I’d kept myself boxed into what I knew - just throwing on the wheel.
M.J.: I understand you’re now using encaustics with your clay.
Jill: Yes! A recent turn is mixing clay sculpture with the artful wax of encaustics. Pottery, as in any art medium, is one of those things where you never explore it all. There’s always something new to learn. New designs, new shapes, new colors. I’ve been a potter since prehistoric times *haha* and I still learn new things.
Many years ago in Greece, I became entranced by the ancient Cycladic figurines made there. They were very simple with an oval face and a nose. 14 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE Their arms are always crossed and there’s a simple body with legs. They were all carved from marble before there were any metal tools and the shape of them fascinated me. So I bought every book I could find on them, hauled them home, and stashed them away.
Years later when I came across them I thought, “Now’s the time.” So, I started making my version of these Cycladic ladies. At first, I tried to copy them but over time I added my own style. Unfortunately, I was having a hard time deciding on the surface quality. I must have tried 50 different surface qualities, but they just weren’t right. Well, a girlfriend of mine suggested I try encaustics and I said, “Wax? I’m a clay person! How durable can wax be?”
And she said, “Well, they’re digging it up in tombs in Egypt and it’s several thousand years old so it’s probably pretty durable.”
As it turned out, not only was it durable, but it gave a surface quality that I can’t get in clays. There’s a depth to it because the wax is somewhat translucent. It was the perfect thing for my ladies and made me want to do more encaustics in my clay.
M.J.: Where do you find inspiration for all of this? Nature walks, music, tossing water balloons at porcupines? Jill: I reallllllllly wanted to go with the water balloons and porcupines. I think nature is my biggest inspiration. I live by a creek and it flows through my mind and artwork. A sense of place is very important to me. I press leaves into clay to create impressions that I see as the “Fossils of the Future.” In all my travels I constantly gather leaves from different places and many of my galleries feature clay impressions from the leaves in their own back yards.
I also listen to the radio. The EWU jazz station is always on in the background of my studio and I love piano jazz.
M.J.: What are your goals for the future? Jill: To keep my hands always muddy! I will be a clay artist forever and continue to find new ways to express myself in clay. Also will work to create and build awareness for the Cowgirls Cookin’ seasoning mix line and its fundraising component. Continue to live my life missions of living a creative life and making people smile. And always continue to follow my three passions in life… clay….horses…food…not in any particular order.
My short bio reads: Jill Smith Does dirty art Races horses Plays with food
