Review

"Gerri," Watercolor on Paper.

Joseph L. Smith
New Works

By appointment during business hours.

Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities
756 Armstrong
Kansas City, Kansas
913.371.0024

Hours after Second Friday: Tuesday-Friday, by appointment during business hours.
Runs Through: May 7.

Gallery site: http://www.kvarts.org

When you arpeggiate a jazz chord — play it in sequence, rather than as a whole — the notes don't always sound as though they belong together. As a melody, sure ... but as the underpinning, not so much.

There's something in that slight dissonance, though, that somehow resolves into a cool blue whole. So, too, with Joseph L. Smith's current show of new works at Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities.

Smith offers three main notes: musical performers, still lifes, and women in hats. Each, on its own, is a strong tone. Together, they jar slightly ... but in that entirely satisfying, jazz-chord way.

The Kansas City, Kansas native sets up the chord this way:

First, works such as Gerri, pictured atop this post.

My approach to creating “Women in Hats” is not typical.  I want there to be something mystical and lyrical in the design of these paintings.  In most of these paintings the women do not look at the viewer; their view is in another direction.  One has to figure out what or where their focus might be.  I use photographic references, but I will always change their hats in some way.

Think of it as a visual improvisation, which brings Smith to the next note in the chord:

I love most forms of musical from jazz to classical.  I have focused on jazz because of the many aspects it encompasses.  Jazz has been described as the “only true American art form.”

Smith shows an obvious regard not only for the music, but also for those who play it. The people in his drawings and paintings are lost in the moment of creation, yet their impassioned faces never devolve into caricature.

And now on the top note in the chord — or the bottom, depending on whether one arpeggiates up or down. Either way works, given the importance of light and dark in Smith's still life work.

My still life paintings allow me to explore the use of chiaroscuro as a major tool, he writes. I set my still life paintings up in a portion of my home that receives the sun on a southern journey for the play of light on the objects.  I see shadows as an important part of the composition.

And as a whole, that composition challenges its viewers — as jazz challenges its listeners — to embrace the interplay of Smith's visual notes.

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