Description

This is an oil painting of my friend Sharon Smith. She’s an amazing international live artist. The words came from her in an email. I painted them in gold oil paint once I realised this painting is about her. It’s how I’ve seen her improvising on stage. Her performances are profound and wild, yet witty. She says of the painting, “oh my god emma!! that painting is ace! and i said that yes! xxx wow – i love it.”

I can relate to her when she says on her website: “Expressing oneself in public is a dangerous activity. In most theatre and gallery spaces that I sit or stand to experience performance, I rarely feel danger. The space is most often ‘safe’. I am not beside myself, outside of my own skin. But I feel danger now, as I write this. My feeling of failure is immense. Now, it really is all about me, and all that I think I mean.” Find out more about Dr. Sharon Smith on her website.

Sharon is committed to the future of performance studies and she continue to make performance works, and to perform, collaboratively in varying contexts.