Patterns in plants slightly fantastic, appearing vividly real inspired by Californian and our changing planet that I discover, record and experience on my many walks and strolls along the ocean. My art delves into the fascinating and often-overlooked interconnectedness between the terrestrial and aquatic realms, specifically through the lens of plants and the ocean. “Flora Ficciones” explores the symbiotic relationships, the hidden languages, and the imagined narratives that bloom between these seemingly disparate ecosystems. I aim to create a space where familiar boundaries between land and sea dissolve and the stories of plants and the ocean intertwine, a call to action to preserve these vital ecosystems for generations to come.

Influences of surrealism peek through Kerrie Smith’s work. Her personally devised gene bank of floral fantasies opens into a colorful world bursting with possibility. Her dynamic work crosses interdisciplinary lines. R.T. Livingston.

Organic shapes like sea anemones and other worldly extra terrestrial flowers. Smith’s paintings are dazzling action-packed where flowers are not simply blooming but literally bursting out of the painting. Veronica Walmsley.

 I was deeply moved by the photographs of your floral works. They possess a quiet mystery — a delicate tension between the real and the abstract. The forms of the flowers remain recognizable, yet they seem to drift beyond strict representation, as though they are in the process of becoming something else — ephemeral, almost spectral. The incorporation of pearl like highlights introduces a luminous, tactile dimension that heightens this sense of ambiguity. They seem to catch the light like morning dew adding a subtle, otherworldly texture. This choice deliberate and symbolic, is reinforcing the dreamlike quality of your work.

Identifying the essential nature of any object - animal, mineral or vegetable - allows one to imagine all kinds of possibilities. Originally this taxonomic tool was universally in Latin twice named, the first half genus and the second half more particular. But in the artist’s world, the boundaries of names, nature and other dimensions are challenged and embellished. Each name is further adornment for a piece of the beautiful, a primordial vehicle for transcendence. The entire presentation of name and image is meant to uplift and even confound, but most of all to liberate and enjoy.

“Kerrie Smith’s paintings and mixed media compositions and installations both are and are not landscapes. Visible in glimpses, and physically present as material, the natural world is indelibly active; but her works play with scale, detail, color, and line in a way that reaches into abstraction, pattern, and pure feeling. Smith’s palette amplifies the most affecting impressions of nature, by turns gestural and supercharged or ethereal and nuanced, reflecting as much the kaleidoscope of the living planet as the abundant spectrum of spirit and psyche that being in tune with it offers” Shana Nys Dambrot, Arts Editor for L.A. Weekly/Contributor to Flaunt, Artillery, & Culture Publications