Patrick Smith (artist)

Infobox Artist
name = Patrick Smith
birthdate = 1972
location = San Juan, Puerto Rico
field = Animation

Patrick Smith (born 1972 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an installation artist, animator and filmmaker now based in Tribeca, New York City.

Smith studied at University of Massachusetts Amherst and has since then been working as an independent animator in New York City. The beginning of his animation career has been told by himself like this:

In 1994, I was in college, and one night decided to animate something strange. I didn't know how to draw, let alone animate, so I just did something abstract. A friend of mine told me I should put an MTV logo on it and send it to them. So I mailed a VHS of it to "MTV Networks" the address I got from the phone book. About two weeks later I got a call from a guy named Abbey, who said that they wanted to buy it. I remember the day he called, because it was the same day that I got my rejection letter from Cal Arts. The budget was $8k. I re-animated the same thing, a bit tighter, and I had to re-do the logo and sound. The spot won a BDA award (Broadcast Design Association) and a Jury Prize at the 1995 Holland Animation Festival. After I finished the ID, MTV offered me a job in layout on "Beavis and Butthead", which was my first ever studio job, and which brought me to New York City. Those were the days. [http://www.blendfilmsinc.blogspot.com/ Fill This Space ] ]

His directorial debut was for the Emmy-nominated MTV series "Down-Town", continuing on to direct the popular animated series "Daria". [http://www.cvzcontemporary.com/artists/_Patrick%20Smith/ Artists - CVZ Contemporary ] ] Since then he has directed a handful of short films which earned him much reputation at film festivals world-wide as well as numerous awards. Besides those short films Smith creates commercials als well as pieces of installation art, sometimes published as street art (and eventually stolen).

Smith's bizarre, morphing style tells symbolic stories of identity and emotion, and has extended beyond film. His Public Installations, featuring numerous unclothed figures, piled on top of one another creating large shapes, have earned the artist a multitude of accolades outside the world of animation. [http://www.cvzcontemporary.com/artists/_Patrick%20Smith/ Artists - CVZ Contemporary ] ]

Smith is also a Professor and Senior Thesis advisor at the Pratt Institute in New York, a fellow with the New York Foundation of the Arts, and a curator for multiple international film and animation festivals. [http://www.cvzcontemporary.com/artists/_Patrick%20Smith/ Artists - CVZ Contemporary ] ]

"Puppet" was awarded the Best Animation Prize at the 2006 Northampton Independent Film Festival in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Selected films

* "Oblivious" (1994)
* "Swallow-Face" (1995)
* "Life" (1999, collaborative)
* "Drink" (2001) 5 min.
* "Chicken" (2002)
* "Delivery" (2003) 8 min.
* "Moving Along" (2004) 3 min.
* "Handshake" (2004) 5 min.
* "Puppet" (2006) 7 min.
* "Masks" (to be released in 2007)

References

External links

*imdb name|0809510|Patrick Smith
* [http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=2999&page=1 Interview With Patrick Smith]
* [http://www.squarefootagefilms.com/smith/contact.html Patrick Smith at Blend Films]
* [http://www.patsmith.com/ Patrick Smith's Homepage.]
* [http://www.theflux.tv/index.php?/Podcast_Player/q-a-with-animator-patrick-smith TheFlux.tv podcast interview With Patrick Smith]
* [http://www.animationinsider.net/article.php?articleID=1312 DVD "Liquid Tales: The Animated Films of Patrick Smith"]