January 2024 | Art At The Rendon hosted Venice Beach, CA-based artist JD Smith at their private pop-up artist residency studio in Los Angeles. This marks Smith’s first art residency in his career. In this video, Smith speaks about his latest series that has been in development during his 8-month residency, where he renders intricately detailed World War II battleships on sheets of paper measuring up to twelve feet in length. 

ABOUT // THE ARTIST

JD Smith (b. 1961) was raised and lives in Venice, California. He spent his early years training as a mechanical and architectural draftsman and is a contractor by trade, specializing in design/build and plumbing/piping systems. His deep fascination with the industrial world was fueled by time spent accompanying his grandfather as a welder fixing cargo ships. During this period, his avidity for the process of building and deep interest in the Pacific War was established.

In his latest series, Smith renders intricately detailed World War II battleships on sheets of paper measuring up to twelve feet in length. His unique method of drawing in radius perspective shows the entire deck of each ship from an aerial viewpoint, providing the experience of being immersed in the life of the vessel.

Meticulously spending over 300 hours on larger works, Smith’s process itself serves as a cathartic tribute: one-dimensional drawings become parabolic portraits memorializing those who lived and died on their decks.

“They, like the wind and water, are the only warmth represented in antithesis to the cold, industrial subject rendered- only flesh color denotes their featureless hands and heads.”

Drawing from his experiences as a Navy veteran, skilled contractor, and self-taught artist, Smith’s work comprises drawings representing objects made of steel or iron, including skyscrapers, trains, ships, aircrafts which either exist, no longer exist, or are in concept. He invites the viewer to gain a new perspective of the quotidian subjects we often take for granted, transforming objects that are often disregarded and static into portraits of industrial monumentalism brimming with endless layers of history and life.