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Artist statement

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Suzanne Gonsalez-Smith: Lost Childhood

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Lost Childhood is my visual interpretation of dealing with the loss of childhood innocence, abuse and even death that affects so many children in the United States and worldwide. This stems from the current events of the day that are filled with an endless stream of data pertaining to violence against children.

Photography has a history of being linked to the recording of memory and therefore, also loss. The photographic image is a visual memory both real and fabricated in its design.  It is capable of expressing the duality of the moment: life and death, dark and light, loss and fulfillment. In documentation, the act of death or loss is often portrayed as either romantic or brutally Gothic. Lost Childhood uses symbolism to create a visual metaphor rich in this duality. Childhood and death are referenced in every photograph.

Toys and dolls are the central theme in Lost Childhood and are used as metaphor for children who have suffered a loss of innocence. No toy is ever just a toy but rather a tool that teaches, aides in the growth of childhood development as well as gives clues to behavioral issues and the emotive personality of every child. Children who have suffered abuse or neglect often have toys that mirror their own fates. Often enough, these toys are tattered, fragile but also show the resilience of their owners as true survivors. Attachments to broken toys often symbolize some form of irreconcilable loss. A toy is a powerful tool to a child.  Often, they anthropomorphize these individual toys beyond the simplistic physical properties giving them great influence over the mind and well being of a child.

Using the beauty and innocence of childhood, such as bright colors and patterns, in combination with bones, broken and tattered toys and antique dolls, art imitates life. These items are meant to represent children who have suffered these losses using the metaphor and beauty of what it means to be a child in conjunction with items that suggest loss, abuse or death. Often, these dilapidated dolls and toys used are manipulated further by working both in a subtractive and additive fashion to create a further sense of age or alteration. Compositions are created against hand-painted and collaged background panels that give a unique richness to each photograph. Each panel created contains several layers of children’s illustrations, vintage papers, acrylic paint, spackle and encaustic wax for added texture and pop of color.  All of these materials are meant to reference the beauty of childhood. Animal bones, halos, cracks, and surface deterioration are all made to preserve the inevitability that all life is subject to the laws of mortality. The use of this symbolism is a direct reference to the 16th and 17th century Vanitas still life paintings produced in Flanders and the Netherlands as well as the influence of my own Hispanic and Latina culture. Paintings during the Spanish Golden Age of painting have also greatly influenced this work through use of color, lighting and also content. Incorporating the use of the halo harkens back to my early childhood training in Catholicism. The bones in my composition also give reference to the idea of our temporal existence and connect us to those who have passed. The effect in this series creates art that reflects life in a manner that is hauntingly beautiful but humanly flawed and helps me make sense of an imperfect world.

(Suzanne Gonsalez-Smith)

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Biography

Suzanne Gonsalez-Smithwas born and raised in Washington State. She is currently an Associate Professor in Photography at the University of North Dakota where she has taught photography since 2008.  She received her BFA at the University of New Mexico and her MFA from the University of Kentucky. The imagery of Gonsalez-Smith's photographs contains the metaphor of memory and myth. Using the contemporary framework of her personal history and environment, she explores personal loss, religious and cultural identities and the duality of life, using symbolism to evoke the inevitability of our own mortality. 

Ms. Gonsalez-Smith is the recipient of many grants and awards and exhibits on both the national and international level. She has exhibited works at The Main Street Gallery, Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, The Center for Fine Art Photography, The Midwest Center for Photography, The Chautauqua Center for the Arts, The Hampton Gallery, Circulo de Bellas Artes (The Circle of Fine Arts) Madrid, Spain, Atelier Gallery 030202, Bucharest, Romania, Borges Cultural Center in Buenos, Aires, Argentina, and The Kirkland Art Center in Clinton, NY to name a few.

To find out more about Suzanne Gonsalez-Smith, click here: 

https://ravenwolfgallery.com/

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