Linda Thern-Smith

Phoenix, 1987
Hammers, Hammer Handles & Chair Rockers, 44" x 21" x 6"

Tapestry, 1986-1990
Tools, Tool Handles, and Copper

Linda Thern-Smith was born in Omar, West Virginia, in 1946.  She received a B.F.A. in painting at Florida International University, Miami, in 1975, and an M.F.A. in ceramics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1977.  Her work has been exhibited in the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Kenya and Lithuania, and can be found in several collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.   Thern-Smith has also served as a curator and an independent critic for many art publications.  Since 1978, her art has explored the concepts of the fetish and the totem, objects that embody supernatural power, and she has skillfully exploited the natural beauty of her materials.  She initially wrapped copper wire around bundles of nails, twigs, and clay tubes; later she incorporated tool handles and slate into her sculptures, sometimes inscribing them with drawings and ideograms.  Her more recent work features carved stone.

 

*Excerpted from Tools as Art: the Hechinger Collection, published by Harry N. Abrams Inc.

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