Academic finds healing in combining art and poetry

Susan Smith focuses on our relationship with the environment

Merging poetry and art comes naturally for University of Fort Hare language Professor Susan Smith who uses them to investigate how humans interact with the natural world.

Smith, 64, who established the Afrikaans department at UFH when it merged with Rhodes University’s East London campus in 2005, has no formal art training, but uses acrylic paint, combined with ink, crayons, charcoal, “or anything that can make a mark” to create vibrant abstract canvasses.

“I picked up paint and brushes around 2005, when my architect-husband started planning our dream home, and I realised that those large walls would need some art.”

The dream Beacon Bay home is the space that holds Smith now that she lives alone and spends her spare time painting.

“I think that art “saved” me, in a manner of speaking. When my husband suddenly passed away in 2017 it was the endless days and nights of painting that kept me going.

“At some point I had classes with Jeff Rankin in printmaking, which made me realise that what I do as an artist, does not happen in a vacuum, but part of how I see the world, and, as my poetry, an extension of my interest in ecocriticism and ecopoetry.”

Born in De Aar in the Karoo, Smith remembers having a strong urge to draw and explore colour.

“I always wanted to draw things when I was a child, and I remember my first encounter with the wonder of colour, when I was in grade I and my father showed me how I could create green from yellow and blue. That moment was magic and would always stay with me.

The compulsion to draw gradually became subsumed by another passion — that of words as a means of expression.

“As I chose my career path of languages and literature, art was pushed to the back. I was always tinkering with things though, spinning and colouring and weaving wool, painting fabric, stringing beads.

Now the professor, who teaches and writes about academic theories of ecocriticism and ecopoetry — the way in which literature and poetry reflect on our relationship with the environment — also uses art to mirror the same concept.

Protecting our natural world, particularly in her beloved Eastern Cape, is at the heart of her academic and artistic pursuits.

“Both my poetry and my art tap into my knowledge and evergrowing awe and understanding of the environment, our place in it and the interconnection between everything. Nothing stands in isolation, and nature is not something out there. It is part of us, part of the air in our lungs, part of the water we drink, part of every step we take on the Earth. The need to live more carefully with and in our environment, is one we all need to take into consideration.

“What happens to our immediate environment, to our Eastern Cape, should be important to us. The recent court decision to not allow Shell to do mining explorations around our coastline, was a huge victory. But the onslaught will not end, this battle won’t be the last. Through art, and through language and poetry, we are creating the awareness of our earth that needs protection.” When it comes to her art, she does this by going large. “I am very much drawn to abstract art and large surfaces. I mostly use acrylic paint, combined with ink, crayons, charcoal, or anything that can make a mark. I am continuously trying out new things, and unfortunately get bored very quickly with repeating something.”

And, while she is happy to spend a long time meticulously perfecting her poetry, in her art she is less patient, less restrained, preferring to go with her gut and move from one joyful creation to the next.

“Getting bored is uncommon for me, since in my poetry I spend days and weeks and months, sometimes, to write and rewrite the same poem, to perfect it. I am a very careful writer. And a rushed artist, pushing to get to the next stage, or painting over it all and starting something completely different, which happens a lot!

“I am drawn to bright colours, which, I think, is an exploration of personal feelings, a spontaneous process of seeing light and brightness in everything, or conveying the joy of colour for its own sake. I know that the colours that surround me have a huge influence on my mood, and my art is part of building those blocks of colour to hopefully bring joy and playfulness to somebody else as well. In terms of form, I tend to find myself repeatedly going back to organic forms, which might be an ordering process, or of looking for landscapes and place.”

While the natural environment is a strong inspiration, so is reading, which is apt, considering that Smith is deeply immersed in literature in her academic life.

When she is at home and the creative juices start flowing, Smith gets to work with her paint brushes in her small space she likes to call her studio. “It often spills over into my dining area. I do not have art supplies everywhere, but they are all over my clothes, phone and so on! I have really ruined so many good clothes, probably since I often have to paint in between other things, and do not dress for the occasion.”

Sometimes art and poetry intersect, and she writes poems to accompany her art.

Although she markets her pieces primarily through social media, Smith participated in a group exhibition at CVD Framers and Art Gallery in Berea last year.

Besides academic pursuits, she is also a non-executive board director at the Afrikaans Language and Culture Association (ATKV), with the portfolio of language and culture.

“During my term I was blown away by the amount of good work the ATKV does, not only in the areas of language and culture and all its well-known flagship projects such as Tienertoneel, Rieldanse, Applous and numerous digital projects, but also at the most basic level of food production and care for children. Being part of the ATKV makes me believe in the basic goodness in people, the willpower and courage to survive and to grow towards a positive future.”