Artist Statement

The collage artwork presented on this website represents an ongoing series that began in 2007 under the title Images from the Storm. Images from the Storm continues to evolve as a visual narrative about human sexuality, melancholy, remembrance and the beauty of circumstance.

​The collage artworks are constructed from individual elements to form a singular whole narrative or story line. These visual stories create worlds that can evoke an eroticism that is symbolic, beautiful, uncertain, mysterious, delicate or destructive.

​When I combined elements together they become a language that leads the viewer to experience these stories.

Each photograph, drawing, flower or paper ephemera has meaning in my life and is placed within a composition that intrinsically creates a voice or memory. In this manner, I feel my collage acts as a psychological expression during creation.

I partnered with the Kinsey Institute in 2011 and again in 2013 to review photographs and letters from their library and special collections archive. I was mesmerized by the collection and the beauty of the photographs, that revealed the documentation of intimacy and human sexual behavior with such diversity and honesty. I am grateful to have these powerful photographic images partnering within my stories.

​I hope that the collage artworks within this collection provide compassion to alternative sexual behaviors and lifestyles, and add an element of beauty to their presentation. I hope that what is beautiful within my world of creation has value and adds insight to your journey through life.

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Kirk Richard Smith

January 2019