Jean Smith

Since beginning her $100 USD daily painting project in 2016, Jean Smith has set aside funds to open the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change where musicians, writers and other artists will work on projects that intend to change the world. In 2021, a New York Times Magazine article about her paintings put her sales through the roof.

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"I reveal or impose emotional nuances in my portraits that aren't captured by the camera. Viewers have an active role in finalizing interpretations."

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Jean Smith is the lyricist and singer in the literary rock duo Mecca Normal. The band has released 13 CDs on independent record labels in the US , including K Records, Kill Rock Stars and Matador. The author of two published novels, Jean Smith is a two-time recipient of Canada Council for the Arts awards as a professional writer of creative fiction.

I went to art school for a while in the late 70s, but opted, instead, to travel around Europe in a VW van for 6 months to look at paintings in art museums.

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Both my parents were painters, which was profoundly educational. My mother was an art school graduate (early 1940s) and my dad was an ad agency art director. I was steeped in both fine and commercial art growing up in the 60s and 70s in an exceptional mid-century modern house in Vancouver, Canada.

2014
– Chicago — "Discovering Utopia" painting used as cover artwork for 7" record exhibited in Public Collectors exhibit at ESS
– NYC — 2014 Whitney Biennial – "Discovering Utopia" painting used as cover artwork for 7" record exhibited in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, NYC

2013
– Vancouver — University of British Columbia

2012
– Los Angeles — Loyola Marymount University
– Los Angeles — Human Resources Los Angeles (HRLA)
– Los Angeles — Echo Park Film Center (EPFC)
– Salem, Oregon — Willamette University
– Olympia, Washington — Timberland Library
– Vancouver — University of British Columbia
– Vancouver — World Peace Forum
– Vancouver — BC Teachers for Global Peace and Education (PAGE)
– Vancouver — Word on the Street, Vancouver Public Library, sponsored by CUPE

2011
– Vancouver — Word on the Street, Vancouver Public Library
– North York — Public Library
– Ottawa — Public Library
– Toronto — Type Books
– Montreal — Casa del Popolo
– Winnipeg — Mondragon
– Vancouver — University of British Columbia

2009
– Vancouver — The Vinegar Factory
– Vancouver — Windermere High School
– Olympia — Evergreen State College
– Salem, OR — Willamette University
– San Francisco — Modern Times Bookstore
– LA — Californi...