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I HAVE A VISION IN MY MIND OF A LIFE THAT I’VE LEFT BEHIND
Cody and Connor Smith
Opening Reception Saturday 11 November 3PM-5PM
Show Room Gallery at NAC

>> Check the CBC article here

“I HAVE A VISION IN MY MIND OF A LIFE THAT I’VE LEFT BEHIND” is a series of collaborative paintings created by two brothers, while living 5000 kilometres apart from each other. Their collaborative process involved sending paintings back and forth between Toronto and Vancouver over the course of one year. The resulting works are hybrid images that existed simultaneously in multiple geographical areas.

About the Artists
Cody and Connor Smith are Visual Artists currently based out of Vancouver and Toronto Canada. Both brothers are graduates of the OCAD University Drawing and Painting Program; receiving their BFA’s in 2010 and 2017.

Growing up in St. Catharines Ontario in the most populated area of Canada, surrounded by the Great Lakes, and geographically almost as low in latitude as Northern California, the brothers feel that this gave them a unique sense of PLACE which they have embraced in their individual practices today.

About the Work

Our paintings are images that stretch time; like a photograph taken from a camera with a shutter speed of 100 years. They are a portrayal of the human condition in the modern world.

The viewer is challenged with an image on a wall that is in a constant state of becoming. There is no end game with these paintings. We found the push and pull of different minds working in collaboration created works with a dream-like presence, as if they were floating in limbo. This was not planned but a result of the explorative process

In creating these works we were interested in challenging the painting process. We were trying to find a new way to paint a picture; branching out from the traditional means of creating a painting with an easel and palette.

There is a real interesting give and take that exists while painting on a canvas that has the ghost of your brother in it. Many times we found ourselves emulating each other’s styles. Other times we each would implement an editing process on the other’s work, attacking an element of the canvas that we did not like; finding ourselves painting over something that the other had spent time on. There are countless complete images that lie beneath the facade of the painting presented to the viewer. They are alive with buried images!

Everything we have ever felt, seen, experienced, and longed for is present in these paintings. There is joy and there is sadness. There is love and there is hate. There is life and there is death. Many times these paintings balance on a fine line between two extremes.

There was 5000km separating us while we sent work back and forth to each other. These images took a journey. In between our studios was Canada; with all its trees, rocks, oil, clouds, suns, moons, lakes, rivers, stars, mists, wolves, birds, streets, bridges, fences, sidewalks, parks, windows, and many human lives.