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Patty Smith
Patricia M. Smith is a Philadelphia-born artist and educator. She grew up in an Irish Catholic home, grounded in religious traditions, its allegories, its imagery, and its icons. In 1975 her mentor in graduate school at The Philadelphia College of Art, Jois Johnson, handed her a broken-down Davidson press with the suggestion that she do something with it. This began Ms. Smith's passion for offset lithography. It connected her experience as a commercial printer to her work as an artist. Her graduate thesis is arguably one of the first treatises on the use of the offset press in the fine arts context. It served as a manual for art students and included a number of current pre-press, plate making and printing techniques, including drawing on Mylar for positive offset plates, a relatively new way of working at the time. She continued to explore the use of traditional and advanced technologies in the Graphic Design Department at SUNY Purchase where she was a full time faculty member from 1982 to 1987. She revived a then defunct offset shop where she operated a large scale Solna press. She developed courses and programs through which Book Arts, Printmaking, Graphic Design and Photography students could learn to use the offset presses and pre-press equipment for their work. Along with Ed Colker, Antonio Frasconi, Warren Lehrer and other faculty members, she worked to establish the Center for Edition Works at Purchase. Ms. Smith was part of a growing number of young artists propelling technology into the artist's world. It was the precursor of the ubiquitous use of computers and laid the groundwork for the multimedia revolution, which is now occuring in the area of fine art. Ms. Smith is currently an Associate Professor in the Fine Arts, Printmaking/ Book Arts Department, at the University of the Arts, where she teaches relief, traditional lithography, offset lithography and book arts studio classes. She was instrumental in the establishment of the UArts MFA Book Arts/ Printmaking Program and was its director from 2000 to 2005. Ms. Smith's interest and expertise in offset as an artist's medium led to courses being offered in the printmaking curriculum at UArts. She was one of several faculty and administrators who planned and established the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts, an educational facility at UArts where faculty, students, and visiting artists can make offset lithographs and artist's books. She was a Master Printer there from 1988 through the early 90's. Ms. Smith's work is internationally exhibited and included in many special collections libraries, such as Bibliotheca Alexandria, Egypt; the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, The University of Washington, Seattle and the Free Library of Phildelphia. She regularly curates exhibitions related to artist's books, printmaking and offset lithography. Ms. Smith is a founding member of the Philadelphia Center for the Book, and currently serves on their Board of Directors. She is a member of the printmaking organizations, Philagrafika, the Southern Graphics Council and the Print Center. She has been on the Artists Advisory Board for the Brandywine Workshop, Offset Institute. She is represented by Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, LLC, Birmingham Alabama.
Patty Smith's work was exhibited in
Production, Not Reproduction:Offset Printed Artist Books
Organized by Tony White, Head, Fine Arts Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, INContext of a Red Dress
(2005) Offset Printed at the University of the Arts Mohawk Superfine paper, ribbon
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