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Stacy Stewart Smith is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fashion Design Art at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where he instructs the finer points of digital fashion design and technical specifications using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. He has been teaching computer art, illustration, fashion design and merchandising courses at several institutions, including his lengthy post as Professor of Fashion Design at the Wood Tobé-Coburn School in New York. Smith is an accomplished fashion designer and award-winning fine art painter. He continues to practice his crafts through national and international venues through his company Stacy Stewart Smith Enterprises, Inc. located in Brooklyn, New York.

On Painting...
I am a painter of both real and imagined things with a tendency to work in series. My current theme is entitled Resurrection. This reflects the concept of being in a state of revival, and it magnifies the process of the mix between, abstract and real to create narrative compositions using symbolism. To accomplish this, I use oil techniques on canvas and favor those which are in impressionist style, such as pointillism. I combine dots, daubs, and smudges of paint with images rendered in realist glazes. Afterward, accents and color markers are added through impasto application with stencils. I believe these combinations assist the viewer in generating a private interpretation of each painting.

Resurrection is concerned with the presence of human reaction to the emotion associated with enigmatic personal experiences, such as hearing or thinking things that change an individual's mood through hue and appearance. This also includes the personification of common occurrences, such as damaged DVDs and the pixel spaces that show when they are projected. I am intrigued by private moments when things seem above and beyond human understanding. The secret life of light and shadow, and the concept of the natural and supernatural occupying the same space in different dimensions is of great interest. In addition, I include cryptic sociopolitical views in my work and their titles. To all intents and purposes, through my art form Abstractrealism, I place the viewer in a presumed reality. This is done to engage their mental, emotional and physical sensitivities.

In some works, I use landscapes and industrial structures as constructs for urban spiritual illusions. They lend a sense of familiarity to the viewer similar to the way we have a tendency of making mental markers about space, advertising, celebrities or geography. The result is selective mental montage, which unlike surrealism is related to the awake. Abstractrealism prepares the mind for the concept of accepting the ethereal within the natural. However, further research, digital processes, film, animation, and projections will soon make Abstractrealism a total experience.

On Digital Art...
Computer technology is just the beginning of what we call the digital age. I believe that computer art is unequivocally the way of today and the future. Through technology, all the art forms have found a niche. This has paved the way for higher intelligence and artistic expression, for technology is the hallmark of our epoch, and computers are beyond postmodern thought.

Moreover, the creation and acceptance of the Internet has only enhanced the experience of personal computing. Everyone, living today, has been impacted by the computer chip. As forms of digital self-expression, computers, and software programs are new tools in the hands of fine artists. They do not replace other mediums, but they do provoke us to heighten our sensitivities in every facet of life.

In the years beyond my undergraduate studies at the School of Visual Arts of New York (SVA), I have had time to practice my craft and focus my goals. A chief directive for me is digital art because it allows me to seamlessly interface with my capabilities. Although, traditional forms offer similar gratification-- graphics software offers a fresh approach that is relevant. This will ultimately transcend my work to higher heights, previously unimaginable. Is this not the combined apparent goal of all the art movements from pointillism to pixels? 

publishing in the Summer of 2012 

CAD For Fashion Design and Merchandining
by Stacy Stewart Smith
on Fairchild Books