After reading about Tom Smith and hearing his interviews where he talked about how he grew up and how he got introduced into the art world, it was so surreal actually seeing him and getting to hear his thought process when making these pieces. The way he uses colors to make certain things pop and his use of other materials on canvas, like the wood chips and cut up paper, makes his works so much more amazing.

The first thing that I found interesting was that although all of the pieces were exhibited together, they had been created up to three years ago. It goes to show just how much work goes into making art. Just because you have “finished” it at that point doesn’t mean the piece is really done and ready to be shown to the public.

I think one very important thing that I learned about during this trip was that a lot of big name artists actually have a bunch of assistants that do a lot of the work alongside them. The artists teach their disciplines how to use their techniques and after seeing if they have achieve it, the artists will actually allow them to paint in their style. I found this a bit unfair just because when I thought of paintings, I always thought it was only one person since it is usually credited to one person. When we think of the Sistine Chapel, we only think of Michelangelo, not all his assistants that were perhaps doing just as much work as he was.

This has taught me to appreciate art a lot more, especially Tom since he created all those pieces without the help of assistants. It was also interesting to learn that the people working in the gallery, like the receptionist, all have backgrounds in art. They are simply doing their jobs in order to break into the art world.