CDAF 2022 Juried Art CompetitionExtended Show: Oct. 24 - Nov. 4
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2022 Juror: Derek Smith
Derek Covington Smith is a self-educated contemporary realist painter born in New Orleans and adopted and raised in Brookhaven, Mississippi.
It was not until Smith was in high school that his family could find local resources and get him into art lessons, where he quickly absorbed every technique the class studied. The lack of available resources as a youth would later greatly influence Smith's career path.
Smith went on to attend his local Community College in 2001-2002, thriving in their arts programming, but no longer seeing higher education as a viable option due to the skyrocketing tuitions and movement away from studio arts into digital media. He spent the next six years between Orlando, FL, and Santa Rosa, CA, before attending Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute, receiving his degree in Culinary Science Patisserie and Baking. Smith married fine art and sugar, specializing in extravagant cakes, and moved to Wilmington, NC, to take an executive Pastry position. While sugar was paying the bills, it had inadvertently awoken his desire to be a part of the art world. In 2012 Smith made another significant change. He left the culinary world, moved back to Orlando, and began to study. He placed all focus and spare time on research.
Smith would eventually move to New York, where a Contemporary Pop Art gallery discovered him called THNK1994, bringing opportunities to collaborate and produce work for ABC, Shondaland, PopSugar, Bravo, and more.
Smith moved back to his hometown of Brookhaven and, in 2018, opened The Little Yellow Building. Remembering the lack of access from his youth, Smith offers after-school programs and summer camps to the local Community while building online platforms to promote Mississippi Visual Artists and provide no-cost submissions for artists looking to gain experience and develop their resumes.
Through The Little Yellow Building, Smith has produced six physical and online exhibitions, four books, a podcast documenting the lives of artists living in our State, and continues to grow a network of Mississippi artists ready to be a part of something bigger.
Juried Art Competition Online Gallery
Check out the 2022 Juried Art Competition Exhibit online. Works may be listed for sale. SAAC & CDAF collects and pays sales taxes on behalf of the artist for any work sold, and the artist keeps 80% of the proceeds. SAAC & CDAF hosts a reception and publicity for each event, handles the collecting and reporting of sales taxes, and takes a substantially reduced commission of 20%.
Please CALL or EMAIL SAAC (arts@starkvillearts.org) if you are interested in purchasing any of these works.
Please CALL or EMAIL SAAC (arts@starkvillearts.org) if you are interested in purchasing any of these works.
