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The surrealistic, pop, feminist, cartoony art world of Fiona Smyth.

SP: How would you describe your work to someone that's never seen it before?

FS: Kind of surrealistic, pop, feminist, cartoony. Drawing is a big element in it.

SP: You describe your work as distinctive female charged graphics. Did you always describe your work that way?

FS: Oh yeah. Since the beginning it’s been like that, except I didn't understand what feminism was when I was at school, that was kind of a later revelation.

SP: Did that realization come when you were attending Central Tech High School or OCAD?

FS: I would say almost post OCAD, even though I was doing work that was all female centered, and had a strong female identity. I had a teacher John Scott who said to me “your work is really feminist”, and I was like “oh, I don't know about that”, but I was just being naïve, and also not wanting to become pigeon holed. As I grew as an artist, I got older and wiser, and could see what I was doing more clearly.

SP: Was there a certain moment in time that you realized it was distinctly feminist?

FS: You know the protagonist in the pieces are always women, it was always women’s stories, and also kind of re-telling or re-drawing familiar archetypes. One of my first shows was called "Whore/House", so it was whores and housewives juxtaposed.

SP: That sounds like a really interesting art show (laughs). Now you have an extensive exhibition history, is there a moment or a show you remember the most?

FS: Oh, there are so many great moments but a really good story is a group show in Venice I was in. It was a show of installation and sculptural work called Open, that year it was Open 2002. It was curated to be all woman artists, and David Liss at MOCCA was the Canadian curator. They had 40 curators from around the world and he chose me to participate. I was super excited - for one to go to Venice, but also Yoko Ono was in the show. I thought I might be able to get to meet her; I didn't, but our pieces were quite close together on the island of Lido. All the pieces were outside and my piece was this 8x10 foot helium balloon. Actually, the day after we installed it somebody shot it with a pellet gun and we had to fix it up. Then 3 days after the opening somebody cut the tethers to it and it disappeared.

SP: That is destructive.

FS: Yeah, and it was called God's Sister, so we were joking around that maybe it ended up over the Vatican.

SP: Now your practices involve painting, murals, animation, comics and illustration. Do you prefer one type to the other?

FS: I always think of myself firstly as a painter, but that's almost a luxury at this point to have the freedom to just go and paint. Other things reach the public easier and are more financially rewarding (laughs) we'll say. Right now I’m working on a graphic novel for young adults and I totally love it, but the labour involved with it is so intensive. To work on a big canvas not knowing where it's going to start or where it's going to end is pretty amazing and fun. With comics you really have to have a clear idea of what you're trying to get across.

SP: You've also done a lot of work for corporate clients. How do commissions differ from doing your own work?

FS: You always have the art director directing you, and the audience/consumer in mind that the piece is for. You sort of have to check your ego at the door but somehow find a way to bring yourself into it. It can be a collaboration. Doing a portrait is like a collaboration and doing illustration or doing advertising illustration is like a collaboration; if it's advertising, there's like a gazillion people involved and different levels that a piece has to go through before it's given the OK.

SP: Are there any specific mediums you use within your art?

FS: Liquid acrylic for my painting and ink for my comics, which I draw with a brush, so everything is with a brush.

SP: Your work has appeared in feature films, like Glitter.Tell us more about that.

FS: (laughs) Yeah, I somehow came across the fact that Tanya {Kim} was in Glitter, so I thought that was a great connection that we were both in Glitter. It was a great opportunity to get my work out there, even if nobody knew what it was or that it was going to be the worst movie ever made - I don't know, I’ve seen worse movies than Glitter.

SP: (laughs) OK

FS: There is some of my work in Cocktail too - the murals from the Dance Cave.

SP: Oh, really?

FS: Yeah, they used the Dance Cave as a Jamaican bar in some part of it.

SP: Amazing, love it.

FS: Yeah.

SP: Where do you see yourself going with your art in the future?

FS: More shows. More graphic novels, the one I’m working on is my first one. Probably more teaching - onward and upward. I thought I was going to conquer the world at 23 and now I’m 46 and I’m still trying to conquer it, so… (laughs)

SP: (laughs) Amazing.

Artist Stats

Fiona Smyth is a Toronto based visual artist. She has covered Toronto and elsewhere with her distinctive, female charged graphics. Her art practice involves painting, murals, animation, comics and illustration. Over the past twenty-four years Fiona has had an extensive exhibition history and is now a drawing, illustration and comics instructor at the Ontario College of Art & Design.

www.fionasmyth.com