Art-A-Fest: Behind The Booths

Charles City’s annual Art-A-Fest remembers one young artist lost, but celebrates a thriving arts community

Saturday, Aug. 20 | 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. | Charles City Central Park

In memory of Trent Smith

Trent Smith had never taken a high school art class when he graduated Charles City High School in 2011. But as he started classes at North Iowa Area Community College and later Southwest Minnesota State University, Smith soon found his role in the world of tattoos.

Now the artwork of Smith, who died in a car accident on Aug. 9, will still be displayed at Saturday’s Art-A-Fest thanks to his family and the Art-A-Fest committee.

“He has been excited for it for months. He spent a lot of his free time planning for it and when he wasn’t tattooing, he was painting,” Smith’s fiancee Liz Sweet said in a statement. “When he got committed to something, he always fully immersed himself.”

“He chose it because it was the only thing he said he could love doing his whole life. Most importantly, he was inspired by other famous tattoo artists that were able to support their family through their craft…I hope his drive and passion for life can live on through his art.”

There will be no sales at Art-A-Fest, but Sweet said prints could be available in the future. A map of exhibitor’s booths is located on the festival website, http://artafestcharlescity. weebly.com. In case of rain, Art-A-Fest will be moved to the Trinity United Methodist Church.

It will be the first time Smith’s work is shown at the annual festival, where he intended to advertise both his personal oil paintings and prints of his Americana tattoo designs, which he created most recently in his workspace at River City Tattoo Company in Mason City.

“I started studying art because it was another thing I was good at besides math,” Smith recalled in a July interview with the Press. “I fell in love with the history and mystique behind tattooing. I fell in love with shop atmosphere, it’s just the best thing in the world.”

Smith developed two distinct styles in his artwork, which he differentiated between business and personal designs. At his shop bench, Smith said he’d always recommend clients consider a tattoo inspired by traditional Americana, which he was known for.

“Bold simplicity is key to a good tattoo. It ensures the longevity of the tattoo,” Smith said. “I try to do neo-traditional. I enjoy doing it because it has a lot of traditional qualities as far as a clean, bold outline and solid color. It still ensures the longevity of the tattoo, but has a little bit more of a realistic quality.”

Smith’s oil paintings shared in bold outlines and solid color, but most strongly represented what he studied in college, he said –– augmatism, an abstract style Smith was introduced to in his art history courses.

“It’s a style developed in the surrealism era about painting from your subconscious,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like a meditation if you will, being out of body and arbitrarily picking up colors and pushing oil until you see a shape, or you feel a certain way, and following that avenue until you think you’re done.”

“Or until I’m totally out of paint, because I’m big on not wasting anything,” he added.

Smith, who said he preferred representing an equal balance of colors in his oil work, occasionally painted still life or semi-realism but kept brush strokes loose and details vague.

“Most of the time I’m trying to convey a feeling, rather than an image. If I feel sad or happy or unified, I try to put that feeling across into my painting,” Smith said. “It’s very freeing, on a spiritual level. Tattooing is so precise. I have to be perfect because it’s all about precision.”

Arts Stories By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com