Mandisa Smith isn’t a fan of rigid precision. When she took her first art class at the University of Michigan, back when she was getting her Master’s in Business Administration, she hated it.
“I was going crazy because it really wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing,” the fiber artist says about her MBA. “So I took this art class, it was a weaving class, and I didn’t like it at all. It required so much precision and I’m not drawn to that. I’m drawn to things that are more organic.”
Her desire to create things more fluidly, much like life’s constant state of flow, drew her to a felting class at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC) in the early ’90s.
“I don’t have to count anything. I don’t have to put anything in some particular place,” she says. “When I’m doing abstract work, that’s not really what I’m focused on. I’m focused on the feeling, and the color, and the movement in the piece. It’s usually just something that’s in my head.”
In her exhibit Women I Love at Norwest Gallery of Art, Smith weaves the emotions and colors embodied by fellow women artists that she holds dear like Shirley Woodson-Reid and Anita Bates.
Burnt orange, deep red, and violet hues blend together behind a bold yellow flower, and swirling blues in one piece. This is Smith’s tribute to beloved Detroit artist Gilda Snowden and her “zest for life,” as she puts it.
“Gilda did a whole series of paintings that were flowers and that’s where I drew inspiration for that piece. I was channeling her spirit and the emotion that’s in her work,” Smith says.
Though Smith wasn’t close friends with Snowden when she was alive, the few times they did interact, she remembers Snowden as a generous and kind spirit.
“Once, I don’t even know what it was, but it was something that I needed, some information, and I thought, ‘Oh, Gilda knows.’ So I called her and even though we had never had a real conversation before, she was so helpful,” Smith recalls. “When people talk about her, they always talk about how generous she was with her time and talent. Even though she died relatively young, she was able to give so much to Detroit.”
Her piece dedicated to longtime artist and art educator Shirley Woodson-Reid folds and curves like a blue wave.
“Shirley’s favorite color is blue and she has a lot of water reflected in her work, so I really was trying to do something that sort of evoked that feeling of water,” Smith says. “I’ve known Shirley for a really long time and she's very encouraging and supportive. She’s so wise and I just love her.”
She adds, “There’s so many places and instances in this world, where women, and Black women in particular, are not respected or honored or appreciated for who we are and what we do. So for me, this show was an opportunity to pay homage to women that I really do love, some as people that I know and I have relationships with and some that I don’t know but I know their work and the contributions they've made.”
Smith’s disinterest in doing things by the book has influenced the veteran Detroit artist on an ever-evolving artistic expression throughout the years. Before she was making art full-time, she was working in the automotive industry and was “exceedingly unhappy the entire time.” Then she started making her own jewelry after taking a metalsmithing class at the BBAC. Later came felting, and the Detroit Fiber Works gallery, boutique, and learning space on the Avenue of Fashion, which she co-owned from 2013 until 2021. She also does eco-dyeing where she uses plants to make pigments.
In the past two years, since Detroit Fiber Works closed, Smith has been focusing on her felting work, showing pieces at the Detroit Artists Market, Scarab Club, Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Contemporary, and the Heidelberg Project.
“I thought that I could run this business and be an artist all at the same time, and it just really didn’t work out that way,” she says about her time running Detroit Fiber Works. “I found that I was never getting my own work done because I was promoting other people’s work. But last year was wonderful because I got to show my work all over the place. I was in a show almost every month last year, which was really great.”
Smith’s continually evolving art practice saved her from a mundane life that wasn’t true to her spirit when she left the automotive industry all those years ago.
“I could have just lived my life miserable, just creating things here and there, but now I have the opportunity to really do my work, express myself, and to evolve because there are so many other things I’m interested in, not just felting,” she says. “One of the most important things to me is bringing beauty into the world because we can’t have enough.”
Smith is working with Oakland Avenue Urban Farms in Detroit's North End neighborhood and Detroit Future City to develop a studio, gallery space for BIPOC artists, and dye garden on the farm where she’ll host community workshops called Akoma.
But this time, she’s making sure she doesn’t fall into the same pattern she did at Detroit Fiber Works where managing the space takes away from her personal art practice.
“I just want to offer this to people [and] say here, if you need a space you can install your show, you can market your show, you can sell your work, and do whatever you need,” she says. “I also want it to be a meeting space for Black women artists because I don’t know that we have that space of our own to come together, talk about what’s going on, share resources, collaborate, and support each other.”
She plans to open Akoma in the spring or summer of 2024.
Where to see her work: Women I Love is on view at Norwest Gallery of Art until Dec. 2. An artist talk is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 18 from 12- 2 p.m.
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