Featured Edmontonian: Rudy Smith

Artist Rudy Smith during Art Walk, back in July.

Here’s an easter egg for all you superfans; if you’ve been with us from the beginning, you may remember that Jeff and I went to Art Walk back in July. Among the people we met was tremendously talented Sherwood Park artist Rudy Smith, whose work you can currently see featured in the flash player at the top of our main page (…and we’re going to blame our not having a proper picture of Rudy on his work – it’s just so dang compelling we couldn’t look away).

Only 21 years old and largely self-taught, Rudy’s work is vibrant and clever, features a multitude of hilarious pop culture references in its titles (“I suck at making up my own,” he says) and stars awesome and unexpected subjects like robots in love, cowboys, and teddy bears destroying cities with their laser eyes (I know, right?!).

“Anything and everything can influence my work,” says Rudy. “Music, movies, books, quotes, conversations, nature, relationships, other people’s art, etc. …Painting landscapes or bowls of fruit never appealed to me. I always wanted my art to be fun and action-packed, the kind of stuff I was excited to read in comics or see on Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid.”

“I suppose I’ve tried to capture some of that childhood excitement and awe in my paintings, or at least create some kind of escapism from the seriousness in life we often encounter as “grown-ups”.”

While Rudy doesn’t have any shows on the immediate horizon (“I’ve been taking a bit of a break from creating new original work and focusing more on getting some commissions out of the way,” he says), he is in the midst of cleaning house – so if you’re in the market for something hang on your walls, you may want to peruse his facebook fan page or his website. You can also head on over to Strange City Body Modification Experience on Whyte, where he currently has a few pieces hanging.

As for what’s still to come for Rudy, he says he’s interested in possibly heading back to school in the next few years, and would like to try out lots of new projects.

“I would love to try painting with oils,” he says. “I’ve been working with acrylics exclusively since I started painting, probably because that’s just what was in front of me at the time….

“I’d love to write and illustrate a children’s book someday soon! Maybe even a graphic novel too! Better get to work on that…”