Left: Artist Mickey Smith
Right: DETAIL, 2007 from the Volume series

Hello lovely collectors! I have good news for you! 20x200 photographer Mickey Smith found some time (I have no idea how) to answer some questions for us. Mickey is in 2 shows as I type this, and will be in 4 more before the year is through! Wowee zowee is all I can say.

Of course, I'm sure you didn't miss Mickey's Special Edition from yesterday: MORE BOOKS!

It's clear from your participation in 20x200 that you're interested in making art available in affordable ways--what is your philosophy on this?

Somewhere between philosophy and reality we have to make a living. Felix Gonzalez Torres was a master of accessible art. It was free. It still is! Go to MOMA, Walker Art Center, Chelsea – pick up your free art. Not from the gift shop. Take it right out of the exhibition. Love it, hate it, throw darts at it, wrap a present with a cloud, eat it – the work lives on far beyond his brief but brilliant career. The work is available for everyone, and at the same time made a living by selling the work through galleries to collectors and museums. His work is a great inspiration on multiple levels.

How has participating in 20x200 helped your art career?

All the clichés about the Internet apply. The exposure is astounding. I work in solitude, so it is an unprecedented opportunity for interaction with curators, writers, librarians, artists, and the list goes on... I was at a dinner following Photo LA last year and was introduced to another artist whose work I admire. We met and she exclaimed, “I own one of your pieces!” It was WORD STUDY. As a community, we’re typically a decade (or more) behind common business practice and technology. People like Jen Bekman are needed to help expand the reach of the art world.

Who are your favorite artists?

Martin Parr, Ed Ruscha, and On Kawara.

How do the above influence/inspire your art (if at all)?

Their work is beautiful, conceptual, funny, and genuine.

THE LEISURE HOUR, 2007 from the Volume series

What do you draw most of your inspiration from?

Childhood and politics. Since moving to New York, I gather up a great deal of creative inspiration from a weekly ritual I call Art with André. Friend and filmmaker André Robert Lee and I head out to look at art on Thursdays. I could go into detail about how this has quickly become an invaluable, long awaited practice, but you should really just try it with one of your favorite people.

What are you working on now?

I’m in the process of printing new work for my first solo show, You People, opening with Invisible-Exports in the Lower East Side in November. In addition to new Collocations, there will be an audio component to the exhibition. We’re also working on a show for SCOPE Miami. I’m so excited I can barely sleep. These shows have been brewing for years.

For early 2009, I can’t wait to dig deeper into a few new projects – Believe You Me and Forever Govern Ignorance. They feel urgent. My subjects are disappearing.

Which 20x200 artists do you most enjoy, and why?

I was crushed to miss the Starn Twins edition. As an art student living in Fargo, I remember idolizing the Starn Twins and Duane Michaels, fascinated by their work as artists that use photography as a means, not an end.

UNTITLED 3, 2004 from the Volume series

Do you collect art?

Yes, primarily through trade and auction. I have two sizeable Urban Beasts and a few of Robert Marbury’s prints. An enormous Ghost Walrus presides over our living room. The passion for his work likely stems from a treasured stuffed animal collection my dad threw out when I was ten. They’re coming back – with a vengeance.

My passion is for collecting is for contemporary jewelry by living artists. The most fashionable people I know who wear junk - when small sculptural, original wonders are available - consistently astound me. In the past, I have invited jewelers like Karen Gilbert and Heinz Brummel to show in my studio.

If I were to walk into your art studio right this minute, what would be the first thing I'd notice?

The bed. My husband and I moved from Minneapolis to New York six months ago. At the moment the bedroom doubles as studio for both of us. When people come by, the living room becomes a gallery for me, or a music studio for QuarterAcreLifestyle.

What would an ideal day for you look like?

I can’t answer that question, I’m a Gemini. The answer changes every few minutes. An ideal day would be filled with a little of comfort and slew of surprises. One of my favorite things about being back in New York is the walk home – I truly love the walk home – and so the day would end.

If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?

Hell no. I would hire a full time assistant, an in house printer, find a studio in New York like the one I had in Minneapolis and start producing the large-scale installation work I dream about. If I can keep making art and travel often enough, I don’t need to retire. Have you seen Eartha Kitt lately? The Louise Bourgeois exhibit? These women are great inspirations. In the Guggenheim show, one of the Bourgeois prints stopped André and I in our tracks. She writes, “It is not so much where my motivation comes from, but rather how it manages to survive.”

See Mickey in one of these shows she is currently in:

Collocations
The Center for Photography at Woodstock
Woodstock, NY
August 30 - October 26, 2008

Volume
Contemporary Art in Traditional Museums Festival
Pushkin Dom
PRO ARTE Institute
St. Petersburg, Russia
September 27 - October 19, 2008

Or catch her in one of these 4 upcoming shows:

Pharmakon Library
Created + Curated by Christina McPhee
New York Art Book Fair
New York, NY
October 24 - 26, 2008

Volume
Alvar Alto Library
Vyborg, Russia
October 23 - November 11, 2008

YOU PEOPLE
Invisible-Exports
New York, NY
November 14 - December 21, 2008
Reception: Friday, November 14

SCOPE Miami
Invisible-Exports
Miami, FL
Decemeber 3 - 7, 2008

Mickey's 20x200 edition prints:
WORD STUDY
MORE BOOKS