Fred Smilde – Circle Foundation for the Arts

What themes does your work involve?

Cannot say I concern myself with "themes" in the traditional sense- but would have to say the Human Figure and if how space can organized can be considered a theme then would include that as well.

Describe your creative process.

A somewhat difficult question to answer in a direct concrete way, at least for me. The simple truth is that I just work on something until I get to a point where I can live it. Most of the time I go through a lot of colors and very often the canvas goes through many transformations until my eye latches onto something that I feel I can work with and then you kind of start all over again.

What influences your work? What inspires you? Why do you make art?

De Kooning has always been a big influence and as far as myself I guess in a nutshell, just need to do something, space provides endless possibilities.

What is good art? What makes a piece of art great?

For me consistency in language (whatever that language may be) is important and a sort of unobservable tightness to the construction. It is important to note that when I say tightness I do not mean rigidity. I guess a sense of inevitability in how a piece is put together.