Jazzin Up Art

Marilyn Bellemore

The Newport Times

August 2, 2006

In an old, run-down building in Kansas City, Kansas smoke fills the air as people crowd together to drink, laugh and listen to the live music of Wynton Marsalis or Jay McShann.

It's a trendy and happening place but faded photos on the walls hold memories of decades long past. The Mutual Musicians Foundation (MMF) on Highland Avenue is a place where Count Basie and Louie Armstrong once played. Today, it's a hang for locals like artist Harold Smith who goes there to sketch performers into the wee hours of the morning.

Smith claims to have coined the term "jazzstracts," five years ago, which are brightly colored jazz-inspired abstract paintings. His work will be on display at Montanaro Gallery in "Musical Sessions," which opens Friday, August 4.

"I go to the different jazz venues. I don't go to the mainstream ones," explained Smith who also spends time at the Blues Room of the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. "My preference is MMF. There's a certain amount of energy there. It's a place where jazz musicians go after the clubs close and jam for themselves and they play until the sun comes up."

The acrylic painter said he'll have a drink or two but mostly he's there to sit and watch. The musicians don't rehearse but take the lead from each other to create their own flavor. In a similar way, Smith observed, "I think about how without planning ahead and taking raw materials you can take each color, stroke and brush and make it fit into something. I don't go out of my way to make it look realistic. I try to evoke the color and energy of jazz - the music and lifestyle."

And what he's come up with are paintings that really rock. Using simple lines and vibrant in-your-face hues "Jazzstract Duet" shows a pair of saxophone players in blue, pink, red and yellow. "Trumpet Player" is decked out in green, blue, orange and red. Smith said most of his work is not of a particular person although he has depicted John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk.

Growing up an African-American in Kansas City, it was hard not to be exposed to jazz music. In fact, Smith's uncle played with Duke Ellington.

By the time Smith reached his teens he was painting up a storm as a self-taught artist. But he realized he'd need to study something where he could make a living. He earned a bachelor's in computer science from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska and a master's in teaching from Webster University in Kansas City. He now teaches computer science to high school students.

Smith said he watches very little television so has time to paint a couple of hours each day in his living room. His work provides a visual representation of a musical experience and he'd like to convey that style in club murals as a future project. He stressed that even if you don't like music the paintings will appeal to lovers of art and vibrancy.

"If you look at the history of jazz you find it was an art form that helped carry an oppressed people through a time of oppression," he said "It helped the Black people in the 30s, 40s and 50s. That whole era of segregation and racism. It kept the spirit alive and gave Black people along with the church a place of celebration, a thing of beauty in a world of tragedy. If we look at the spirit of perseverance and embrace the beauty of life despite what's going on around you, I think jazz painting

Intimate images explore racism, injustice

Caprice Stapley

The Kansas City Star

June 8, 2001

Heavenly personages, gang funerals and family are a few of the many images that make up Harold Smith's solo exhibit at the Corridor Art Space. Reflective and emotionally charged, his 26 paintings exert a broad appeal, while expressing what Smith terms "the life experiences of the average African-American person in America."

A Kansas City native, Smith holds a bachelor's degree from Union College in Lincoln, Neb., and teaches at a middle school in Kansas City, Kan. Smith remarks that he has always "drawn, sketched and painted," but only recently has his work been publicly displayed - a move that sparked controversy.

During a recent exhibit of Smith's work at the Kansas City Kansas Public Library, titled "Red, White & Black: Expressions of Middle Class Black Rage," some library patrons were disturbed by the artist's handling of the American flag. One piece, for example, displayed a ripped and burned American flag set against a black background. Despite this upset, the exhibit travels to a San Francisco library in November.

Although less politically provocative than his show at the library, Smith's current exhibit also explores themes of injustice and racism and includes a few pieces from the library exhibit. Two of these, thickly painted, striking abstractions labeled "Emmit Till" and "Lady Justice," are Smith's best at the gallery.

Also particularly moving is "The Mourning." Executed in white, black and gray, the intimate picture captures the scene of a mother and two daughters staring at an open casket, the mother's hands gently placed on her daughters' shoulders. Smith leaves their faces blank, with no identifying features, a strategy that effectively makes these figures universal.

In other works, detailed faces convey Smith's personal perceptions. The flatly painted face of "Mrs. Brown" is a composite of the various African-American female teachers who nurtured and encouraged Smith and others, making them "almost feel as if we were her kids."

Smith's visions of angels reflect spirituality and thoughts of the afterlife as well as a childhood realization: "When I was a kid, growing up Catholic, all the angels I saw were white. When I got older, it dawned on me that either angels have no race or there are some black angels."

The halo - a typical angelic symbol - distinguishes the celestial body in "Black Angel 2," a fantastic painting, peaceful in its aura. A halo represents something different, though, in "Family," a lamentation of the destruction of the African-American family and its consequences on a generation.

Other canvases, such as "Yellow," a painting of one of Smith's neighbors, embody his feeling of community.