Banking on KC – Sheron Smith: Channeling KC's Soul Through Jazz, Landmarks & Abstract Expression
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Sheron Smith, a local Kansas City artist whose work depicts local cityscapes, historic jazz venues and abstract pieces. Her works are on display in the lobby of Country Club Bank's headquarters at 1 Ward Parkway during the next few months. They'll be featuring her abstracts this time. You've also been featured your cityscapes earlier, haven't they?
Sheron Smith:
Yes. Yes, that's correct.
Kelly Scanlon:
Your artwork, as I said, it really captures Kansas City's rich jazz history. What initially drew you to that particular theme, and how has it influenced your artistic direction over the years?
Sheron Smith:
What initially drew me to the historic jazz clubs was when I discovered some old black and white photos of various jazz clubs, just a few, and I noticed the names. The names were intriguing. The facades were all different, and the names were really intriguing, like the House of Swing, the Hey, Hey club. The names were really kind of cute. One of my favorites is the Wiggle Inn, I-N-N, Wiggle Inn.
Kelly Scanlon:
I love it. Yeah.
Sheron Smith:
Yeah, so anyway, I love those and I started to look for them, collect them, and I made a whole collection of historic jazz clubs.
Kelly Scanlon:
Is there a particular time period that these clubs represented? Was it at the heart of the jazz?
Sheron Smith:
Yes, definitely. The prohibition period is when they really took off and there were close to a hundred here in the Kansas City area and they were on 12th Street, Midtown, the 18th and Vine area. It was just really a huge entertainment district. Some of them were just dives and speakeasies and some of them were larger like ballrooms, like the play more. So on my search for these club photos, which are few and far between, actually, I don't think they were a popular thing to photograph in that era, but whenever I come across one, I add it to my collection, which I paint on a dark background with really bright paint that kind of emulates neon. And so well, there's a collection, a permanent collection of my jazz club prints at Waldo's Pizza. They have a side they call the tap room, and so there's nine or 10 prints there permanently.
Kelly Scanlon:
What are some of the unique qualities of the acrylic paint that you use that helps you? You Mentioned that it's dark on a dark background and that it comes off as kind of neon-ish, so what is it about the acrylic that you use that allows you to render them in that way?
Sheron Smith:
Well, the acrylic, any paint, it's the colors. You can use contrast to make them pop, but the acrylic is unique in its versatility. It can be very thick or it can be watercolor thin and it accepts mixed media.
Kelly Scanlon:
So does that give it a dimensionality?
Sheron Smith:
Yes. It's easy to create texture with and you can add different acrylic mediums to assist in that, and it's just exciting to create them and add different media from.
Kelly Scanlon:
They really do capture that vibrancy of the period. You can almost feel the vibrations and the music emanating from them. I know you don't have the Cityscapes collection featured in the lobby right now here at the bank, but I want to talk about it a little bit. It features Kansas City locations, very iconic ones like the Sprint Center. How do you select which ones to portray, given all of the significant landmarks we have throughout the city?
Sheron Smith:
Well, there's so many, and I think I've painted most of the ones that really move me more than once from different angles. Scenes, like for example, the Power and Light District, there's a night scene I painted of that, but I painted the pylons, the Kauffman, the power and light district, and the cityscape as a whole from different angles. I just am moved by the architecture, whether it be new or old, like the power and light building is a fabulous building, as is the Kauffman is also a fabulous building from two different eras, but they both motivated me to paint them.
Kelly Scanlon:
And I'm curious about that. Some people might look at a building and say, "It's a building. It's a building." What is it about the building that you see that makes it come to life for you and that you try to capture in your paintings?
Sheron Smith:
Well, I don't capture them as they are. I take liberty with the colors and I have a lot of fun with that. For example, the Power and Light District has a purple sky with some pink undertones, and so I have a lot of fun and take a lot of liberty with colors, so that's what kind of makes my paintings a little different there. I don't paint them exactly as they are with all the grays and browns and so forth.
Kelly Scanlon:
Let's talk again about the Jazz Icon series where you bring to life these nightclubs, historic nightclubs, historic performers. You talked a little bit about your research process. You gathered old photos, but how do you ensure the historical accuracy and really importantly, something we touched on a little bit with your use of color, the emotional depth in those paintings?
Sheron Smith:
Well, the vibrancy I add with the windows appearing to be lit in the night scene, it kind of portrays the feeling of that era where there were so many clubs and so much activity going on here up until the 1960s when urban renewal wiped out most of the clubs.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes, the highway came in.
Sheron Smith:
Yeah, the highway came in and they all were wiped out, but there's still a few standing. Of course, the blue rooms, originally was the Fox's Club, but it's an original club and the Mardi Gras still stands. It's an original club and there's a few other buildings that no longer have the neon sign on them anymore, but there's just a few that still exist, but you wouldn't know they're clubs.
Kelly Scanlon:
Excuse me. The Blue Room obviously has had lots of greats. One of my favorite people to listen to there and she's now gone was Ida Macbeth. I'd love to go down and-
Sheron Smith:
Yes, Ida Macbeth.
Kelly Scanlon:
And watch her perform.
Sheron Smith:
The Drum room, it was a club that existed. That's one of the clubs.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:05:38]
Sheron Smith:
There are inside pictures in the Drum room. I can't find an outside picture to paint.
Kelly Scanlon:
And I want to turn now to your third category and the ones that are on display downstairs, and that is your abstracts. What inspires your abstracts? What are you trying to capture there?
Sheron Smith:
Well, that's where the versatility of the acrylic paint comes in, adding elements to it, doing knife work, adjusting the colors and finishes. It can look like oil or it can look very flat. It can be as thick as a heavy paste or it can be as light as watercolor. There's so much you can do. I can do anything I imagine with abstracts.
Kelly Scanlon:
What's your process like when you sit down in front of a blank canvas? Do you just let what you're feeling at the moment start to come through on that canvas or do you have a plan in place already?
Sheron Smith:
Usually, I may have a vague plan, but I start with texture. I start with maybe a plain white medium or a medium with tint, heavy texture, knife work. I create a texture with sponge work or whatever I'm feeling at the time. I try different techniques and the texture comes first, usually on the abstracts, and then I add more color or I add some mixed media elements and I keep working with it until I like it, until I know I'm finished and I'm pleased with it.
Kelly Scanlon:
What do people who purchase your pieces or that see your pieces on display say to you? What kind of feedback do you get? How does it move people?
Sheron Smith:
Well, the abstracts, everyone is not an abstract person. Most people who live in Kansas City are Kansas Cityscapes people. I get a lot of positive feedback about the Kansas City paintings. The abstracts, if a person's into abstracts, they love abstracts. They usually comment on the textures and the elements that I include in the paintings. Yes, I used to do kids shows. Little kids used to want to touch my paintings, which I allow because they're tough. That's one thing about abstract paint, it's very tough, so I allow touching.
Kelly Scanlon:
What a great way to introduce children to art, to be able to touch it, feel it. It's not something that's scary.
Sheron Smith:
Right.
Kelly Scanlon:
How did you get into art? Did you start as a young person knowing that this was going to be your calling, or was it something else that propelled you into this direction?
Sheron Smith:
I always liked to draw. I always liked to paint. I always liked any artistic endeavor since I was a child, and my father used to bring home his shirts from the cleaners, I'd get the core boards out of them, and I'd create a lot of art with them. Sometimes I'd create 3D things, and even today I'd do 3D mixed media work, so always I've been involved in art, I loved it at school.
And then in adulthood I had to make a living and I do enjoy the education field, so I became a teacher and I taught language arts, and so I taught that for a number of years and I was able to incorporate the arts into it as culminating projects. Most of the time, children are able to express themselves that way as well as vocally, and they can express themselves vocally about the art. So there's just rules of ways to include art into teaching to make it meaningful. I had my summers, I took classes. I always kept some art project going on the side. You get very busy being a mother and earning a living, but still, I always made some time for art. Once I retired, I went into it full time and it became more serious.
Kelly Scanlon:
How do you balance that intersection of business and creative expression? Even in retirement, you still have to make a living, so you can't just do whatever sit and paint all day. You can, but you also have to be aware of the business side of it and the ins and outs of running an art business. How do you do that? I know that you sell originals also prints, so how do you balance all that, the creative side, with the business side, with what exactly to sell? How do you figure all that out?
Sheron Smith:
It requires serious time management. It takes time to create a website unless you can pay someone to do it, but I built my own. It takes time to stock a shop online and all that. It just takes so much time. And then if you go into a retail venue where you're selling prints, I do print my own prints and package them.
Kelly Scanlon:
So your own distribution and delivery system too?
Sheron Smith:
Yes, I do it all myself, but I just need to manage my time so that I have plenty of time for what I love to do most, which is create art. But it's a good thing to get it out there and to get the appreciative feedback from people and be invited by Country Club Bank to show. All of that's very rewarding, and I just enjoy everything about it.
Kelly Scanlon:
Given that you enjoy everything about it, can you point to any particular thing throughout your career, when you're doing it as a hobby or now doing it full-time, that has really been the highlight in your career as an artist?
Sheron Smith:
Well, I've had a few highlights. One was when Art in the Loop chose my painting, it's called Together We Rise for the big board at 13th and Grand, and it was up for a little over two years, and it was a part of the Kansas City community. I got a lot of comments and feedback on it, and that was a highlight. Kansas City provides so many opportunities for artists. It's very welcoming, and there's many organizations that provide opportunities for artists. One event is the Parade of Hearts. I was accepted into that twice, so that that's another highlight there. The first one I did was I had a Kauffman theme with a conductor and instruments, and the Kauffman kind of fit into the upper part of the heart. It has two humps in it, and the heart has two humps at the top, so it all fit in, and it was located in the West Bottoms.
Kelly Scanlon:
But that kind of merged your cityscapes and your jazz with the instruments and with the Kauffman in the background. It strikes me that you were able to pull them down that way.
Sheron Smith:
Yes, MCO saw it and complimented it and gave me free tickets to the Kauffman, so that was fun too.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's great. Yeah.
Sheron Smith:
And the second one featured a cityscape going down Grand into the city at night with the moon up above and the city on both sides, and a streetcar coming straight out at you, it was located in Parkville. Participating in charity events like the Head and Neck, helping them with their fundraiser and having my art featured at events that they sponsored. That was another highlight. It's a highlight anytime anyone appreciates my art, like when you first start out, when someone really loves it, really wants to buy, it feels fantastic. I used to do tent shows in the very beginning, which is a lot of work.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, yes, you have to take it all there.
Sheron Smith:
Yeah, talk about time-consuming, but I found that abstracts sell better in person than online. I sell a few online, but in person people can see and experience the textures and colors so much better in person. So the tent shows they sold better in person that way, but I don't do them anymore because I'm maturing, and it's a lot of work.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's a lot of physical work, getting those all there set up and you're on your feet all day.
Sheron Smith:
And sit there for three days.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes, yes, it is very tiring. You mentioned community a few minutes ago, community and local culture do play a significant role in your work. How do you feel that art contributes to the community and in what ways has the local community influenced your artistic choices?
Sheron Smith:
Well, as I mentioned before, the art contributed to the community by being out there with the different opportunities that the community has provided. The community is very welcoming to artists, and there's the organizations like ArtsKC and Urban Art House, the Artist Coalition and Art in the Loop. They all provide so many opportunities to show your work, be a member, participate in member shows. You have your First Fridays all over the area. This is a great community for artists, and it's grown so much since I first started full time, I'd say 15 years ago. It's really grown, and I think it's even better than being in a major art city like San Francisco or New York where you're lost in the crowd. You have more of an opportunity to be a part of this community because it's continually growing.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you create some of your larger scale works like your cityscape paintings, what kind of challenges do you face with those?
Sheron Smith:
Well, the cityscape paintings are very challenging, and it's interesting because I'll see a scene and I love it, and I decide to paint it, and then I have to recreate it on a canvas. I have to draw it and plot it and scale it, and I usually use a grid, and it takes months sometimes, but I don't work on it every day. I'm a multi-person, I go to the abstracts. I might even work on a mixed media sculpture type piece, but I come back to it and I work on it. It can be stressful. And so then I finally get to the place where I'm ready to paint it, and that takes time too. I add a little texture in the sky and the moon and so forth. And one thing about acrylic, it's very forgiving. You can always change what you're not satisfied with. So all of my large cityscapes, they took over a year to complete because I am in no hurry, and then I never want to sell them. They're all at home. They are all at home.
Kelly Scanlon:
You get attached to them, huh?
Sheron Smith:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, like your children. So you talked about the process that you go through there and it really is a process. I think sometimes people think that an artist just sits down and voila, here's this painting.
Sheron Smith:
Well, you can if you do a loose painting, my cityscapes are not that loose. They have the windows and the streets and the sidewalks and the trees and all that. Some paintings can be loose where you just give the impression of things. I sometimes find that harder than a more exact painting for some reason.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's very interesting. You talked about how your home is filled with your paintings and they're sometimes hard to let go of. Do you have a favorite?
Sheron Smith:
Yes, I do. I have a favorite. It was the last one I put on, the last heart, the one where going down grand with the streetcar coming out, and it's called the Mighty Mo. And the way it got that title, it came from experiencing approaching the city on I-70 going east or 670, and it's high up on the hill, and I'm with my husband and he always says, "It's the Mighty Mo." And I laugh every time he looks up and he says, "It's the Mighty Mo." And so when I created that painting, I thought it looked pretty mighty. The city looked huge, and the moon was up above and it was a nighttime scene with plenty of sparkly lights, and so I named it the Mighty Mo.
Kelly Scanlon:
As you move forward in your artistic endeavors, do you have any new themes that you think you'll be exploring? You think those three categories we've talked about or where you're comfortable and want to stay or?
Sheron Smith:
I'm always looking for new nightclubs to add to my collection. I'm always looking for new city perspectives to paint, to add to the Kansas City collection, and I'm continually creating textures, experiencing different techniques for creating textures with the abstracts.
Kelly Scanlon:
So for anyone who is aspiring to be an artist, what would you give them in terms of advice for developing their own style and also importantly succeeding with their work?
Sheron Smith:
Well, first of all, you need to cut out some time out of your busy life. Make sure you hone your craft and spend some time on it and continuously work at it. And you may not feel confident in the beginning, but you will become more and more confident as time goes on. And at some point, if you stay with it, you'll feel like you want to share it with the world.
Kelly Scanlon:
Sheron, thank you so much for coming on and explaining to us your creative process and what inspires you. And thank you very much for allowing your works to be on loan here at Country Club Bank. What a gift.
Sheron Smith:
Well, I thank you for having me here for the podcast, and I thank Country Club Bank for having my abstracts in their beautiful space.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Sheron Smith for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Sheron's vibrant artwork breathes new life into Kansas City's iconic cityscapes and historic jazz clubs. Through her unique use of acrylics, she blends architectural detail with creative color choices, infusing each piece with personal meaning and a sense of community. From painting Kansas City's skyline under a purple sky to capturing the pulse of Prohibition era jazz clubs, Sheron invites us to see our city through an inspired lens. Her work not only celebrates our past, but also contributes to our cultural present. Country Club Bank is honored to showcase Sheron's abstract collection at our 1 Ward Parkway headquarters. Supporting local artists aligns with our commitment to community engagement and celebrates the spirit of Kansas City where art history and innovation come together. Thanks for tuning in this week, we're banking on you Kansas City, Country Club Bank, member FDIC.