fruition: accomplishment, fulfillment, achievement, perfection, result, completion ….

Do you have a series of photographs that you are interested in making into a completed mixed media body of work? Images that are ready to be edited, printed, and combined with mixed media?

A Smith Gallery in conjunction with Fuse Studio is seeking artists who need studio space and equipment to complete or further a body of work and would like to be supported with guidance, time, and the tools needed to create and complete a project.  Potential projects should include the combination of photography and mixed media — analog and or digital photographs combined with collage, encaustic, bookmaking, drawing, painting, etc.

Each entry should include:

• 12 to 20 images
• Project proposal (please email to amanda@asmithgallery.com)
• Artist statement (please email to amanda@asmithgallery.com)
• Bio including Links to website and or Instagram page (please email to amanda@asmithgallery.com)

We will be selecting two proposals to be featured for the calendar month of January or February, 2025.  Each selected portfolio will receive:

• 5 days and nights at Fuse Studio in Philadelphia which includes access to analog darkroom, digital darkroom, print lab, encaustic studio, photography studio and housing.
• One day orientation to the studio space conducted by Leah Macdonald.
• Hands on instruction by Leah Macdonald during the residency.
• Daily zoom critiques with Kevin Tully and Amanda Smith, A Smith Gallery directors.
• Online exhibition of completed project in either January or February, 2025.
• GalleryTalk with the artist which will be posted in the A Smith Gallery blog.
• Exhibition catalogue including forward by gallery directors and Leah Macdonald, artist statement and exhibition images.

Additional information:

• Residency at Fuse Studio must be completed by December 31, 2024.
• Travel to and from Philadelphia is at the artist’s own expense.
• Meals are at the artist’s expense.
• Fuse Studio will provide all photography & encaustic tools, painting equipment and some artist tools. Please see Fuse Studio website for more information and images of the studio. Artist must bring their own special supplies: photo paper, print paper, encaustic paints, pigment sticks or personal items needed for art.

Creativity is encouraged.

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JURORS |  Leah Macdonald makes her portraits into artifacts, one-of-a-kind conceptions that suggest the imperfection and multiplicity of memory. The heart of her mixed media work, a poignant sense of revisitation and return. Her passion is sharing her art and creativity with others through teaching workshops, art exhibitions and her prolific internet portfolios. Her new technique “photogestic” is the fruition of all her years of experimenting with altered surface analog photography and mixing media. It combines her three skills in art: photography, collage and encaustic painting. When transforming photographs from slivers of reality to complete fantasy, she expresses the tales of womanhood. She uses collage to place her figures in new and surreal environments. Her intuition with encaustics allows beeswax to embellish and veil her models. She carefully draws on the wax to decorate and control the visibility of the subject. Layering these mediums by manipulating surface texture and color grants her the ability to express her imagination and bring her art vision to life.

 She was born in Philadelphia, she attended college in San Francisco and then went on to receive her MFA in Photography from the California College of Art. She enjoyed a long and varied career path within the arts:commercial photography, professional analog printer and college professor. She was the Education Curriculum Director at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center. In 2007 she was asked to do a live encaustic painting demonstration on the Martha Stewart show. Other highlights include a solo retrospective of encaustic nudes at Wexler gallery in 2010. In 2016 she was the scenic director of In My Body Musical. In 2017 she was selected as the recipient of the New Courtland Fellowship by The Center for Emerging Visual Artists.In 2018 she was an artist in residence at the Encaustic Castle. She recently launched a new website; Lost Light Luv, it features her legacy analog photography. Her encaustic photography art is represented by Inliquid Arts, Saatchi Art, Galerie BMG  and Cerulean Art Gallery in Philadelphia. She has also self published numerous handmade artist books.

Kevin Tully, co-director of A Smith Gallery, is a photographer, designer, writer, artist and co-director of A Smith Gallery. He has over forty years of experience as a landscape designer, furniture designer, fine art painter and photographer.  Kevin’s alter-ego and nom de plume, Franklin Cincinnatus, is currently working on a soon to be published collection of stories.

Amanda Smith, co-director and founder of A Smith Gallery, has a thirty year background as a photographer. She was an active board member of the Texas Photographic Society for fifteen years. Her work is in institutional and private collections across the country.

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SUBMISSION | Guidelines: Digital images should 1800 pixels on the longest side saved in JPEG format at 72 ppi. Each image should be labeled with consecutive numbers followed by your name, i.e. 1FirstName_LastName.jpg. The number should correspond with the number on the application form.   Please do not watermark your images.  If you need help sizing your images, please follow this link https://convert.town/image-dpi

SUBMISSION | Online: Fill out our online application to apply, send images, and make payment with Paypal. You will receive an email confirmation upon receiving the entry and payment. You can also fill and submit the online application, print out your confirmation email, and mail it with a check for your fees to the address below. 

SUBMISSION | Mail: Please prepare a submission form with your name, address, email address and phone number along with a list of the titles and printing process of each entry.  The number of each title should correspond to the image number on the cd.  CD’s and submission form should be mailed to:

A Smith Gallery
P O Box 175
Johnson City, TX 78636

The gallery will send an email confirmation upon receiving the entry and payment.

SUBMISSION | Entry Fee: $125.00 per entry. Submission fees are not refundable.

ELIGIBILITY | Submissions are open to all photographers both professional and amateur. International entries are welcomed.   Work previously exhibited in the gallery or featured on the blog are not eligible.

SALES | The gallery has an online store and will include all images from the exhibition. The gallery will retain 30% of the sales price.  The buyer pays all shipping costs.

USE RIGHTS | Photographers retain full rights to their own images. The gallery will use the photographer’s images for publicity purposes.

FOR MORE INFORMATION | amanda@asmithgallery.com