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 Shirley Thomson-Smith was born in 1929 in St. Louis, studied art at the University of Oklahoma Art School, and lived in Durango, Colorado in the 1950's and early 1960's. She has been a member of the National Academy of Western Art (NAWA), now called the Prix de West show, since 1985, and lives in Oklahoma.
She has observed American Indian, African, and Hispanic women continuously for years and is able to portray their strength, grace and peace with an uncanny sense of presence and motion.
It all started in 1980 when she was unhappily employed as a secretary and felt frustrated as an artist. "If I went through my whole life and never tried to make it as an artist, I'd always be disappointed in myself." When the frustration became unbearable, she finally got enough courage, quit her job and followed her heart and dream to be an artist.
Through hard work (her goal was to sell one piece a month) blended with great talent, she was accepted as a member of the prestigious NAWA. Since then, she has received national recognition and acclaim as one of the most popular sculptors today.
"I want to continue to grow and create pieces that give enjoyment and pleasure to everyone that views them. I don't think we are ever so great that we can't learn. A true sculptor is one carved from stone." That is her next goal.
Rendezvous 2001, at the Gilcrease Museum, featured the work of Shirley Thomson-Smith in a show in April 2001. It marked the occasion of a new era in the Rendezvous tradition that spans more than twenty years of showcasing distinguished contemporary American painters and sculptors, alongside a remarkable permanent collection of some of the greatest American artists of the past 200 years. |
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