Hello! My name is Alli Smith, and I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Southeastern WI.
My work walks the line between playfulness and sorrowfulness. Its whimsy appears through my use of a vibrant color palette, lively mark making, and the utilization of zany creatures, cartoon characters, symbols, and text. However, there is a weight my work carries simultaneously. Its melancholier aspects appear the longer you look beneath the surface. Some creatures converse in murky, abstracted spaces. They appear lost. Others question their worth, and what it means to be accepted authentically in a world that is eager to assess your value based upon patriarchal and heteronormative standards. My work serves as a vessel to express the struggles I face within my own identity and from my own perspective, which still maintains a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor about it all at the same time.
