Artist Stacie Smiley opens show in Talkeetna

by: Katie Writer – KTNA

Some artists struggle to have the time and focus to create art, others benefit from creative talent being stored away for many years.

Stacie Smiley is one of the latter.

“I wanted to immerse myself in it, spend a long period of time doing the one thing, painting, instead of picking it up and putting it down to go do other things.”

Stacie has found the time in her adult life to be able to focus on creation from beginning to end. Perhaps having an art opening at The Flying Squirrel Bakery Cafe was one motivational factor to complete a series of paintings.  In addition, her husband, Troy built custom frames that add another level of professionalism to her art.

After some research, Stacie decided that her old style of painting was out of date, at least to her taste. She researched paints and various mediums and spent some money on new supplies. 

“I wanted to experiment with alcohol inks, which is a fairly new theme to paint with.  People have been using them now for a few years for scrapbooking…”

Alcohol ink on canvas became her springboard for outstanding color and designs de fleurs that deliver the viewer to sophisticated gardens. When the hues of the upper Susitna Valley have yet to reach that invigorating spring green, one’s yearning for the lushness that sits right around the corner can be met by Smiley’s work. She says that she gets her inspiration from nature, while amping the colors up with graceful brushstrokes.

The centerpiece of the show, titled “Man vs. Nature,” displays four paintings in which Stacie envisions the outcome of the battle, and which culminates in a scene where nature fills the frame with a surreal red rock image.

“Each of the paintings has the elements of water, air, fire, and earth.  That’s the ‘Nature,’ and there’s the ‘Man’ portion of each painting.”

Stacie goes on to explain how her paintings evolve in the series.

“In the third painting, Man is losing a little ground.  You’ve got asphalt, which is a smaller portion, and then you’ve got fire, which takes up more of the paining.  In the final painting of the series, you have Nature dominating.  It’s all nature.  It’s a painting of Red Rocks, basically.  It’s earth.”

Smiley’s cleverly chosen theme of the natural elements displays the artist’s desire for nature to ultimately triumph.

There is more on the walls of the Flying Squirrel for those who appreciate seeing how one artist captured the moment by immersing herself with the aesthetic.