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What is Abstractrealism?
Abstractrealism, according to Stacy Stewart Smith is the visual result of his memory, life force, and psyche in motion. This concept drives him to recreate the delicate balance between the real and abstracted forms of visual and metaphysical experiences. Smith says, because the thrusts of my concepts revolve around the perception of reality, each work is an individual performance in the eye of the viewer." Abstractrealism yields a collection of urban and rural landscapes- mostly realistic in their interpretation by the artist, but also often abstract or otherworldly. Architectural structures are of the greatest importance for they provide the construct upon which Smith creates spiritual illusions. He states, "the objective of my work is to invite the viewer to think past reality in order to engage both their physicality and subconscious thought processes.” The viewer is free to interpret these scenes individually.
A chief goal of Abstractrealism is to totally engage the viewer. However, it is the physical experience that creates the desire to convey space and movement. Because Stacy Stewart Smith works from both photographs which he takes himself and from live models, often what is conveyed, through each work, is a tantalizing sense of “what would happen” if the viewer were actually in the picture. In the same sense as the works of Edward Hopper put you in the mind of nostalgia; Stacy Stewart Smith’s Abstractrealism places the viewer in the now and the netherworld.
Computer Processes
In the spirit of computer art, some of the work shown, on the left, has been generated from original paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Images of the originals were digitized, then computer software applications, including Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop were used to enhance the composition, color, texture, etc. Other works are total digital creations made with combinations of vector and raster graphics. These programs offer greater possibilites to Abstractrealsim, because the digital world can transform two dimensional surfaces into 3D experiences. As Stacy Stewart Smith further develops his concepts, animation, projections, and film will become components of these digital installations in the spirit of storytelling. To view some of the original oil paintings, go to the Contact page on this site, and play the video interview.