john smither

About John Smither

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John Smither is originally from the Chicago area and grew up in the Midwest with a BA from Lawrence Univ., Appleton, WI with instruction from Arthur Thrall and Rolf Westphal and an MFA in printmaking from Washington Univ. in St. Louis working under Peter Marcus. While in grad school he also pursued working in video and large scale drawings with charcoals and paint sticks. Once out of school he moved back to Chicago where he continued to make relief prints, video, and large-scale drawings. His subject matter focused on the urban and wild landscapes of the area. At that time, due to technical limitations, he was never able to integrate these mediums into satisfying installations, so the different media were typically worked independently. After showing in Chicago at solo and group events for many years he moved to Seattle. ​

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In Seattle, he continued to work on large-scale drawings and branched into paintings based on the local environment of the Pacific Northwest. In 2010 he joined forces with another local artist, Zanetka Gawronski and started Core, a non-profit gallery, in Pioneer Square. At about the same time, with video tools being much more affordable and accessible, he also started to reintroduce video into his work. Fast forward to the present day, he creates integrated installations of paintings, woodcuts, and video of various sizes. Aside from the multimedia work, he also creates oil paintings and woodcut prints with the same focus on Pacific Northwest flora and fauna. His work is included in numerous private and public collections including Seattle University and the City of Kent, WA. John's studio is in Georgetown’s Equinox complex and is open for visits most second Saturdays of the month and by appointment