Kissing the artist’s spring ground

By Katie Dunn

Sun contributor

Thirteenth century Persian thought has found its expression in the north woods of Leelanau County: a project by the multi-disciplinary, French-American artist, Alyssa Smith, who is based in Traverse City. The project, fittingly, is entitled: “A Hundred Ways to Kiss the Ground,” (100 Ways)—a part of which is presently on display at Farm Club.

Artists in Leelanau and the surrounding area abound, but each artist has a unique vision to share. Smith’s work is singular in its delicacy, spirituality and subtlety. “100 Ways” is very much an artistic, erudite extension of Rumi’s philosophy and Smith’s own essence.

Rumi (formally named Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammed Rūmī) was a poet, Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic whose spiritual thought has been widely influential—transcending nations, cultures, religions and time itself. His deep legacy has inspired the imagination of Smith, who first read his poems while teaching art in Germany in her 20s. Her favorite Rumi poem is titled “Spring Giddiness,” and the lines which resonate most are: “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

“I wanted to start a project that would showcase all the small ways we can appreciate our lives and the small ways we can appreciate the world around us,” Smith explained.

“100 Ways” is comprised of 100 rectangular ceramic pieces that Smith constructed out of Michigan clay, the surfaces of which she etched, and then glazed, with images of landscapes, interiors, still life, abstracts, symbols and more. Smith considers this body of work to be a “visual poem.” It is one that most certainly succeeds in celebrating and embodying Rumi’s message of fulfillment, serenity and beauty.

“This project was an attempt to let the beauty I love be what I do,” she said.

Three of these ceramic pieces are on exhibit at Farm Club. Two depict a landscape, the fields of which are created in such an abstract manner that they hint at the surreal. The third ceramic piece is a still life, beautifully raw in its construction.

Alongside the ceramics are two oil paintings. One, entitled “Thistles,” is a still life of a vase filled with delicate wildflowers, the stems of which mimic the patterned tablecloth on which the vase sits. It is rendered beautifully in muted, soft greens, lavender and cream. The second oil painting, “Setting the Table in Late Winter,” is an interior scene that is most notable for its quiet, almost eerie and very much evocative, emptiness.

Sara Theisen, one of the four owners of Farm Club, befriended Smith at Yoga for Health Education in Traverse City, and also through LC Collective, which is a part of the Leelanau Conservancy.

Theisen recounted why Smith’s work complimented so well the philosophy and energy of Farm Club: “Her work is incredibly beautiful and fits in seamlessly with the aesthetic of Farm Club. We love providing the space to showcase her work and are honored that she shares it with us.

“Alyssa’s observations of the natural world, the way she captures and looks closely at plants, tablescapes, landscapes and quiet moments—her work feels right at home at Farm Club,” she said.

While some of Smith’s work is redolent of the spirit of Rumi, other pieces are “intended to be portals to older wisdom.” That vision is readily manifest in her “found object” piece on display at The Mill in Glen Arbor entitled: “Buckets.” Smith sourced materials for “Buckets” from The Mill itself. It is comprised of a piece vintage cotton webbing affixed to which are 39 small tin buckets. This textile was once a part of an elevator system used to transport grain and flour throughout the levels of the mill. Smith serendipitously found the material in an outbuilding on The Mill property. These repurposed remnants, together, form “Buckets” into one unifying piece that immortalizes The Mill. They are, essentially, vestiges of The Mill’s storied past.

“The piece was really meant to be a historical piece highlighting materials from The Mill,” Smith explained. “I love taking old materials and reshaping them in a way that makes us think differently about their purpose and their beauty. The materials that make up the wall hanging were a part of the machinery—how The Mill functioned, but put into a different context and shape, and it’s a contemporary piece of art that can have so many other ideas attached.”

Kelsey Duda, creative director of Fernhaus Studio and The Mill, shared insights about Smith’s “Buckets”: “Alyssa instantly had the concept for “Buckets” on her first walk through The Mill, and I could not love this piece more. I would never have thought of combining the pieces together the way she did, transforming artifacts into a work of art.”

According to Smith, her creations—at both Farm Club and The Mill—are a “reflection of the interwoven connections of environment and the life of the mind.” It is, thus, no small coincidence that the 20th century Canadian-born American artist, Agnes Martin (1912-2004), also, is of tremendous inspiration for Smith. “Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in my mind,” extolled Martin. Smith, like Martin, operates in extremely sublime colors that convey a certain quietness and inwardness. Both artists are intensely cerebral in their execution.

Smith was born in 1984 in Lille, France, near the Belgian border. Her parents, Lonnie and Debbie Smith, are Americans who moved from Omaha, Nebraska, to France in 1983 where her father managed a printing press. Smith’s family returned to the United States in 1986 but ultimately settled in France so that her father could attend seminary school. Her parents still reside there. Smith, along with her five siblings, was raised and schooled in Europe and the United States, intermittently, from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s.

Smith attended Taylor University in Indiana where she received an undergraduate degree in art education in 2007. She then returned to her alma mater, Black Forest Academy, a boarding school in Kandern, Germany, where she taught art. Smith continued her education at the New York Academy of Art, earning a Master in Fine Arts for painting in 2015.

While pursuing her Master’s degree, Smith, most inexplicably, developed an undiagnosed, and terribly debilitating, medical condition that precluded her from pursuing a career as an oil painter. Unbeknownst to Smith at the time, she was intolerant of linseed oil, the primary medium in most oil paints. Not undetermined, Smith turned to farming—something in which she channeled her inner creativity.

“At first, I was really using [farming] as an escape… It was a very healing space on multiple levels. Having your hands in the dirt … is very much grounding. I also just love vegetables and cooking so that became my creative outlet … It was inspiring to be in that space. You’re working with beautiful, colorful living things.”

In 2016, Smith started this new endeavor at her uncle’s goat farm in South Carolina. She also volunteered at the nearby Furman University Farm. Soon thereafter, she moved to upstate New York where she continued farming at Keith’s Farm, renowned for its organic produce. Finally, farming brought Smith to Eastport, Michigan, where she worked at Providence Farm.

During this respite from oil painting, Smith returned to France in 2018 where she had a fortuitous encounter with another painter who, likewise, had an adverse experience with handling conventional oil paints. The artist enlightened Smith about something of which Smith previously had been unaware: oil pastels that were fabricated out of mineral wax, as opposed to linseed oil.

“It was definitely kismet!” Smith confided. “It was a chance encounter and I never saw her again. My French angel.”

Emboldened with this newfound information, Smith happily returned to painting, using the oil pastels. Smith is no longer limited to employing only oil pastels. Now, there are oil paints made from linseed oil alternatives.

“I found out about oils using safflower oil that I could safely use … so I transitioned back to oil paints. I still love oil pastels though, and may still go back to them.”

Smith’s journey ultimately drew her to the Traverse City area in the fall of 2021, where she now lives as a working artist. Smith briefly moved to Cleveland in 2020 after her time at Providence Farm. It was there that she had an epiphany of sorts:

“I really missed the [Traverse City and Leelanau County] area, the water and realized that if I wasn’t going to move back to France, this was a pretty good place to be. There’s a good group of people who really care about the land and local food which is really important to me, and I wasn’t seeing that everywhere. I wasn’t very plugged into the creative community here, but it happened pretty fast once I decided that this was where I was going to stay.”

Smith feels that “In a world moving too fast, my paintings offer a practice in observation.” Perhaps consider slowing down yourself: visit Farm Club or The Mill for contemplation and introspection. Smith’s work will deliver.