Kaitlyn Jo Smith is an interdisciplinary artist focused on the present and future trajectories of America’s working class. Raised by skilled laborers in rural Ohio, Smith was thirteen when the housing market crashed and nearly every adult she knew was suddenly out of work. Her artworks render visible the intangible realities of unemployment by utilizing automation, machine learning and 3D scanning and printing. These technologies are directly linked to the loss of over 4 million US manufacturing jobs since 2000.

ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.

What are some of the central themes you pursue in your work?

My art focuses on America's working class, specifically blue collar workers in the Rust Belt. I am consistently exploring the challenges that technology brings to these spaces and the families that reside within them. I use repetition as a way to connect to the labor of factory workers and others whose jobs are headed towards obsolescence as a direct result of automation.

How has your art practice developed over time?

I grew up in the rural midwest and naturally began 4-H at the age of 8. It was with that organization that I first took a summer photography project. Each summer, through my senior year of high school, I would show my photographs at the county and then state fair. It was at the Ohio state fair, when I was 17, that someone first looked at me and said, "you can be a professional artist".

What drew you to work with your medium/media of choice?

I began as a photographer, but started feeling confined by two dimensional space towards the end of undergrad. There was also a shift around this time where I went from making images to mining the archive. Creating my own photographs no longer felt necessary as I was able to access any imagery I wanted online. I've used different sources, such as Google Earth and Facebook, to create my video work. Currently, my practice incorporates 3D printing and scanning as a way to visually present the monotony of both automation and skilled manual labor.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an artist?

I have been incredibly fortunate in having an amazing support system. My parents have encouraged me to follow my dreams since day one and my partner edits my writing and helps me whenever I need him in the studio. Time is my biggest obstacle. Most of my work takes months to complete and can't be done an hour or so at a time. Finding days where I can fully commit to my practice can be a struggle. I try my best to schedule my jobs so that I have three day weekends– a day to deal with normal human things, a day of rest and a day of art.

Describe a typical day in the studio/wherever you make your work.

I don't get into my studio daily, but when I'm there I'm working a minimum of 8 hours straight. My work is incredibly repetitive and requires a meditative headspace to commit to the hours of monotony it takes to create any given piece. To get there I listen to a playlist of heartbreaking country music. These songs make my soul ache and the way I feel while listening to them is how I want viewers to respond to my work.

What future directions do you envision for your work?

I am currently in the research/experimentation stages of a body of work that deals with the intersections of Catholicism and the assembly line. This progression seems to make sense following my thesis exhibition, American Standard, which replaced workers with machines to question the ethics surrounding the current state of labor practices in America. Drawing from familial experiences, I have become interested in the space where the repetitive nature of factory work and organized religion overlap.

How does it feel to be selected as an ArtConnect Artist to Watch?

I couldn't be more excited to receive this recognition. I graduated with my MFA from the University of Arizona in 2020. My thesis exhibition was put on hold until June of 2021. While I am grateful that it happened at all, I feel like I have lost an entire year of promoting work that I feel is important to our understanding of both American politics and economics. An audience of this size is honestly unbelievable. I am so proud to finally have this body of work out in the world.

See more of Kaitlyn Jo Smith’s work

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