geoffrey todd smith

artist geoffrey todd smith is hot hot hot these days as he is propped by this design group and that magazine . . . . kids listen up - he uses gel-pens to create his colourful hand-made drawings. that’s right, all those small circular and hexagonal shapes spread across sheets of coloured papers alongside collaged elements or shapes painted in gouache are drawn with gel-pens! but don’t dismiss this work as merely decorative because of its somewhat lowly media.

i love when lo-tech products rise above their lowly station and become objects of desire or even if they are used in the course of creating something beautiful like these artworks. smith’s works begin without a specific idea. the drawings apparently just emerge and evolve. but there’s more to it than that. as smith bio suggests, his work “presents a range of images that evoke a mood of sentimentality for activities of his youth: jigsaw puzzles, video games, sticker collections, and doodling as well as his youthful fascination with simple geometry and one-point perspective.”

the general ghost in the chandelier has sexy to spare and body that's sheer, 2007
ink, gouache on paper


in touch with a contact high, 2006
ink and gouache on paper




the high jumper, 2006
ink and gouache on paper

a little gallery of images can be viewed at western exhibition’s page.

an installation of smith’s work is currently underway at hyde park hyde park art centre in chicago. when you visit this page you can see an example of smith’s layering process as used in one of his larger works. it reveals the incredible detail and also hints at the enormous amount of time it must take to craft these pieces.