I’ve been interested in art since I was young: it’s part of what drew me to architecture. But art is a matter of creating images; architecture is mostly about solving problems. When I got out of architecture school, I found myself more drawn to images and questions meaning, and, after pursuing writing for a while, became an artist.
From January 2018 to September 2023, I ran a decorative and fine art practice called Nick Smith Paintings. I worked in acrylic, tempera and oil paint, and digital media, and dealt with subjects from natural to abstract to religious and philosophical. I found myself drawn especially to surreal and grotesque subjects, finding the strange in everyday objects or landscapes.
However, I’ve found myself called back to architecture because I want to use the rational part of my mind as well as the creative part, and I find that, during my artistic period, I have starved that problem-solving faculty. I want to move from images to problems, from questions of meaning to practical solutions.
NCS Portfolio 