Airstream Adventure with by SMITH

Words by: Chandler Hines

Photos by: Jon Kohn

For many girls, becoming a fashion designer is the ultimate dream. It’s one of those careers that only comes true in the movies or reality TV. Well, sometimes dreams do come true and it has happened to one of the South's own! Smith Sinrod Diano grew up in Pensacola, FL and graduated from The University of Alabama in 2009 before launching her clothing line, by SMITH. She is one of 7 children (4 of those girls) and some of you probably know of her sister, Holland Williams, from her fabulous photog skills here in Montgomery. The by SMITH collection can be found at Montgomery’s local boutique, Painted Pink on Mulberry, which has been carrying her line since she started it. Supporting a local business like Painted Pink or hue Studio means much more when you get to know some of the designers personally. It’s really neat to know that you are wearing something that a local 'Bama grad dreamed up in her New York studio and put out there for us to have! 

I happen to be one of those girls that is still dreaming of fashion and design so I jumped at the chance to interview Smith on how she got started in the biz and what inspires her. Moving from Florida to Tuscaloosa and then to New York is quite the leap and I wanted some insight on how she got started and is able to maintain a fabulous brand. 

When did you know you wanted to start a line and design clothes?

I grew up having a sense that I would end up in a creative field. I decided to make a plan to launch the line during my Senior year of college. Once I knew I was going to move forward with the line, I started strategizing my development and angle. My original concept was built around the use of Thai Silk in a contemporary label. The first step was a sourcing trip to Thailand and the rest is history!

What inspires your collections? Do you have a personal muse?

I am constantly inspired by New York's Art Deco Architecture that fills the city. I also pull inspiration from my late Great Grandmother's style- she was "miss put together" and had incredible taste. 

What kind of girl do you envision wearing the by SMITH collection?

The by SMITH girl is the young professional woman in her mid-twenties to late forties, career focused singles, recently married, and fashionable Moms. 

Where can these women buy your clothes?

In Montgomery, Painted Pink carries the line and has since the very beginning.

What is it like moving from Alabama to New York? You must have been intimidated at first!

When I first moved to New York, I felt very intimated by the aggressive people that fill this city, but now it's home. Now that I am producing in New York and work right around the corner from the factory, I have built a nice work community. The Garment District is small and I see people I know on the streets everyday and that feels comforting. I love coming home to see family, get my grits fix, and take a breath. 

What is your go-to outfit and personal style on any given day?

My personal style is reflected in my collection. I like to mix and match printed pieces in a dressy way if the occasion calls for it and prefer to dress down on a daily basis. During the summer I am usually guilty of wearing a pair of Soho Shorts with a cotton tee and flats.

What is next for by Smith? Any big goals or future plans? 

We have a lot in store coming up, a lot of which I can't discuss yet. However this summer, we have plans to go on an Airstream Adventure, which is a mobile trunk show concept I came up with. It's been in the works for a while and finally coming to life! We are hosting 5 events in 5 different cities and are collaborating with local artists & talent in each city. We are creating a block party meets trunk show event in each city. It should be fun! We will have blog featuring each party and our adventures along the way. So tune in- more to come! 

Well, that sounds exciting! I'm sure there are a lot of girls that look up to you. What advice would you give them to pursue their dreams? 

Follow your dreams!! Take criticism with a grain of salt- everyone has opinions of how things should be done, sometimes you just have to do your own thing, listen to your gut and pave your own path.

Come join by SMITH Wednesday, July 23rd from 6:00-8:30pm at the Tipping point for drinks, fashion and fun.

Keep up with by SMITH on her website, facebook and instagram.

The Newspaper Boy: Chervis Isom Grows Up in Civil Rights Era Birmingham

WORDS Caroline Rosen

Birmingham author and lawyer Chervis Isom will be at the Alabama Book Festival this weekend at Old Alabama Town talking about and signing his book, The Newspaper Boy. Isom wrote this memoir partly out of nostalgia and partly out of a need to figure out what his life was all about. Isom explained that once he reached "retirement age" he started to think about what was his life all about. According to Isom, "life after retirement ought not be a rocker on the porch.  That’s the time to look at the bigger picture, to see what’s important, to pitch in and do something for his community."

Isom's book is really about the Norwood Community, an area of Birmingham devastated first by white flight, then by the flight of anyone who had the money to leave, without regard to the consequences to the community. Delivering newspapers in Norwood gave Isom a front row seat to  the changes taking place in his community and in greater Birmingham, as the headlines of the day were imprinted on him morning after morning for years. Although Isom initially sided with the bigoted and intolerant, over time -- and much like many others who grew up poor and white in Alabama in the 1950's -- he rose above his prejudiced past.

"I wanted to leave tracks for my grandchildren," Isom said, "to let them know how it used to be in the South, and how far we've come—and I wanted to challenge them to go farther and farther toward a better society—one based on justice and love. I wanted to focus on the importance of community in our lives." Isom believes society's emphasis on individual fulfillment has made it difficult for people to see the bigger picture, and his book asks the reader to re-evaluate their priorities, to think about the community and not just the individual.  

Teaching the next generation through the lessons learned in his own life was not the only reason Isom wrote the The Newspaper Boy. "I had always secretly wanted to write, but never thought I had anything to write about," Isom said.  "My life has been pretty bland, no great adventures, no athletic accomplishments, no courthouse theatrics." But when Isom read what William Faulkner said when he accepted the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, Isom was inspired. According to Isom, "Faulkner said the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself," and "I know something about that. I lived with conflicts in my heart during my adolescence." Although Isom didn't know if he had the talent to write, he knew he was ready to try.  

Learn more about Chervis Isom and The Newspaper Boy tomorrow from 1:00-1:45 in the Log Cabin Tent at Old Alabama Town. 

monochromatic at Triumph & Disaster Gallery

WORDS Caroline Taylor

Working in monochrome, artists featured in monochromatic push their limits conceptually under restriction of a single color. With roots dating back to the Suprematist Composition in Moscow, monochromatic tradition is an important component of the avant-garde of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Influential to the practice, Color Field painters and Minimalists of the mid-twentieth century, such as Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Tuttle, developed single-color use – eventually incorporating shaped canvases. With enduring relevance, execution of artworks using a limited palette (today explored in various mediums) references the long tradition from the past while continuing to prove significant to the present.

The three artists included in triumph & disaster’s monochromatic explore the practice from three different angles. Cameron Martin’s meticulous process presents a contemporary use of traditional landscape, evoking a sense of non-specific nostalgia. Leslie Smith III updates the use of the shaped canvas with paintings showing his understanding of spatial relationships – the restricted color palette allowing the strong and intentional lines of his constructions to serve as the composition. Referencing media of pop culture, Javier Barrios’ cut-mylar collages move between fact and fantasy, confronting the great philosophical questions of mankind. 

Artists included: Javier Barrios, Cameron Martin, Leslie Smith III

monochromatic runs April 3 – April 27, 2014 at 505 Cloverdale Road, Unit 102. For info visit www.triumphdisastergallery.com

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Q&A with Javier Barrios

MADE Paper: Your background is international, with Guatemalan and Mexican heritage,

raised in Norway, and currently based in New York. Does exposure to many

different cultures inform your artwork?

JB: I think that my multicultural background somehow has formed me into this

restless and rootless person and I am sure it´s also very present in my

artwork. My project is very much about exploration and movement, so I

guess there is a direct link between my background and practice.

MP: What or who influenced you to become an artist?

JB: I have always had an attraction towards the visual ever since I was a kid,

either it was through drawing or by being fascinated by images in books.

But it was not until I was 20 years old I took a conscious decision of

actually pursuing a career as an artist. I wan living in San Miguel De

Allende in Mexico which is a city that has a big artistic community. Here

I was exposed to many different artists and medias and was also the place

where I picked up a painting brush for the first time, something that felt

very natural at the time and still does.

MP: Taking reference from many different medias (films, internet, TV, etc), your

work highlights tendencies in contemporary culture. Your four works

presented in monochromatic were made specifically for the exhibition ­ how

did the limitation of color affect your practice?

JB: We are bombarded with visual imagery in our daily life through technology

that surrounds us constantly. The last year I have been pushing my work in

a more monochromatic and simplistic direction, as I see there is a value

in stripping down the work. It is almost as if the cleaner the work is,

the more it stands out from our surrounding. Almost like a counter

reaction in the same way the minimalists worked in the 60`s. I have not

found any limitations in working on a more monochromatic way, actually i

have found it to be the opposite as it has enriched the work.

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Q&A with Leslie Smith III

MADE Paper: What or who encouraged you to be an artist?
Leslie Smith: My father is a photographer. I grew up following him around, learning the trade. He also drew, so I always had paper and materials around. I played Classical and Jazz piano early on. Not sure how that ties in directly, but when I got tired of performing and moved away from music I started taking Art more seriously. There were several individuals who supported me, teachers etc. Ultimately, I think it was the free Art Museums in Washington DC. The National Gallery, Smithsonian, Hirshhorn Museum and Phillips Collection, although you have to pay for that one, gave me the opportunity to see art from many movements. The Museums offered me the opportunity to experience the scale and power of both representational and abstract art; they gave me something real to aspire to.

MP: Who are your major influences?

LS: If I think about the artists who I continually find myself revisiting despite shifts within my studio practice, I’d say my major influences are Fra Angelico, Giorgio de Chirico, Francis Picabia, Phillip Guston and Amy Sillman. It’s Hard not to make a list a mile long. I mean I have numerous contemporaries that I look at to stay abreast to contemporary themes and variations within the artistic dialogue I perceive myself responding to; I’m not sure I’d consider them “Major” influences. Then again, I guess time will tell.

MP: When did you start working on shaped canvases and how did this affect your practice, and particularly, did the non-traditional shape inform your color palette (and restriction of)?
LS: I started working on shaped canvases in 2012; my first attempts were in 2010 when I realized I hadn’t constructed a creative mechanism or process that would parlay content into information that could directly inform the characteristics’ of the shapes I would design and paint on. My venture into shaped canvases was in fact due to shifts in my studio practice dealing with material specificity. If I wanted paint to function illusionistically as well as to substantiate the object presence of a stretched canvas, then the canvas itself was something that I could reconsider. Perhaps considered differently than the status quo, i.e., rectilinear structures, and additionally different than the shaped canvases of the late 60’s and 70’s. The role of color in my paintings shifted as well. Working within a monochromatic color space was inevitable. It offers me the ability to be as physically expressive with the paint as I might need to be in order to articulate a particular emotive or perceptual or space while allowing that passage of paint to maintain a monolithic presence, as a result of its color being connected to the entire painting as an isolated event.