Carter Smith Volume 21.1
KIMONO of double georgette, multicolor, discharge/injection dye shibori. Model: Nicole. Photograph by Carolyn Ross.
Carter Smith
Stirring the Soul
Again and again, whether coherently linear or lyrically circular, artist Carter Smith’s statements resound like a drumbeat. Nearly exhaustive in their intensity, his themes—connection, energy, creativity—pour forth in robustly passionate missives. His very soul is suffused with the messianic imperative of driving home the messages, one after another. In low tones of calming warmth, and without much of a preamble, Smith begins an extensive soliloquy on life, shibori and work; he has been waiting a long time to put forth his beliefs, and there is no staving the flow.
He started learning shibori from his mother over thirty-two years ago. “Then it was called tie-dyeing,” he says. “I tried doing it a couple of times, in the same way as everyone else, then all of a sudden something took hold and I became so excited about the process. I embraced a few techniques, perfecting and treating them in a manner similar to a mechanic. I would look at a piece and admire just how technically right it was.”
Only much later, after years of working, did Smith realize that his shibori pieces were being smothered by his need for perfection. “It hit me,” he remembers, “that what I was really doing was killing the spirit and the soul of my intention. Our work as artists is to explore and to be excited by that exploration. When we do that, the energy of creating an idea, concept or a new piece takes over, and that energy becomes imbued in that piece; it becomes part of it.”
Considering emotion as the root element of his final artistic expression, he instinctively trusts his feelings to provide guidance to the right solution. Art is an emotional adventure that Smith experiences as “really wonderful, terrific and amazing,” and it has taught him to be much more spontaneous. It is the difference, he says, between comparing the first twenty years as a livelihood with what is now an expression of love. “Ultimate spirituality and ultimate creativity are right next to each other, and they follow the same path,” he believes. “You can look at a piece of white fabric before you’ve done anything to it and know that there is something there, a spirit, waiting to emerge. Then you must decide what to do to make that happen. Shibori is like cooking. I love to cook, as much of it is a process with surprising, unexpected results. I’ll stare into the refrigerator and think, this is good with this; I like ginger and it goes well with that. So let’s combine it with these other ingredients.”
BIAS “K” DRESS of double georgette, multicolor, discharge/injection dye shibori. Model: Nicole. Photograph by Carolyn Ross.
“Shibori is the same way. When you open it up, you don’t know what the technique is going to do, but it will tell you through its result. I can sit here and be looking at nothing and then something happens. I start with one concept and maybe move on to five more designs. I taught myself shibori; I taught myself to design; I taught myself to sew. I never took a workshop. In order to sew I just started sewing. Some of the first things were pretty awful, but I knew the concept was there, the excitement was there, and so was the inspiration. It is all about challenges. I say to myself, ‘you’ve got to do at least one thing today.’
“Somebody once told me that by the time you are twenty-six it is the point of greatest creative energy and just forget it after that. I’m now fifty-one and creating more than I did at forty; and I created more at forty than I did at thirty. At each stage there has been a recognition that I’m growing stronger, more powerful; I’m growing more and more into the spiritual world, more emotional and more into the subconscious. I know that my life is a summation of all the experiences I’ve had. And they have become my tools.
KIMONO WITH OBI of double georgette, snake discharge shibori. Model: Malinka. Photograph by Joan Emm.
“I look at my life and it is a combination of a lot of little lives put together. There was this period and that relationship, this house and that place. There are all these different segments that make up the total. But it is the direction we take that is most important. It is about what we do with our lives; how we can evolve; how we can become the best person. But we can’t be that person for ourselves; we have to be the best person for other people and for the world. So when we are gone, we will be judged by what we do for others, what we give to the world, and not what we take.
“I’ve absorbed a lot of personal hits, and in a sense I’ve gotten a lot of my own energy back. There was a place and a time when I thought that what I was doing was most important. I didn’t acknowledge others. I really isolated myself and had a lot to learn. What I’ve found in life is that if we need to hear something, we must state it first; and then, by saying it to the people we need to hear it from, it doesn’t matter whether they say it back or not.
“You can go through a horrible experience and say, ‘god, that was the worst thing,’ and be really bitter. You can also understand that there was a lesson there and accept that there was a lot of pain. Then all of a sudden the message starts to gel and it becomes a very positive experience rather than a very negative one.
“I finally learned that when you forgive someone, you do that for yourself, and you are released from that bad energy. You are free of it and it no longer controls your life. That took me a long time to learn, and now I’m not letting the negative things hold me back. When somebody does something to me, that person is telling me something about themself. They’ve been hurt by what they did to me, and it’s on their conscience and it’s on their soul. We are responsible for our actions.”
““To me, the wearable art movement is not about technique or the equipment I use, but it is about feeling and heart.””
CARTER SMITH on his porch in Nahant, Massachusetts. Photograph by Carolyn Ross.
Men especially, Smith feels, have to get beyond their stereotypical behavior before they arrive at the point that they think many women have already reached. “A lot of it is about acknowledgment, about being able to cry, or laugh, or be creative. I make a lot of men uncomfortable, but I’m also opening them up; because I’m not a frail man, I’m not a weak man. I’m powerful, but a lot of my power comes from what they would consider the female side. That is what I connect with and helps me to be whole. It’s like having a mathematical equation with half of it missing; there is no way that you can work out the solution.”
Carter Smith’s shibori production is located on several floors of his seventeen-room house, centered on a lushly green lawn in Nahant, Massachusetts. The water laps the ragged coastline just minutes away. Freshly married, Smith lives there with his wife and fellow artist, Teri Jo, several children and a singularly devoted canine. Seamstresses work on the uppermost floor, but from the basement onward, there is ample testimony to Smith’s creative life and its professional aspects.
Out of some two hundred work days, the team averages three thousand garments a year, plus another three thousand scarves. Smith himself dyes about twenty thousand yards a year. Rows of racks are bursting with beautifully handcrafted clothing in various fabrics with diverse dye treatments. None of the pieces look remotely similar; they are distinctive, expressive and visually intense, just like the creator’s personality.
The dresses range from fifteen hundred to more than two thousand dollars. One woman, he says, bought forty coats last year; his oldest client died recently at one hundred nine years.
It is obviously truthful when he states that it is a privilege to work fabric, to do shibori, and to make clothing that hopefully reflects a woman’s inner being. Smith insists there is a resurgence of the wearable art movement and much of it has to do with the way women are now viewing themselves.
“With our power and our energy, we are not going to accept what fashion dictates,” he affirms. “Somehow, thinking that life and fashion are about young, beautiful women who weigh one hundred five pounds, and when their breasts start to sag with age, they are supposed to go out and get new ones, is totally ridiculous and does not respect life. If we artists compete with fashion, we’ll lose everything that we have worked for. I would rather lose everything than become part of that world.
“A lot of people don’t really understand that there is something special happening. Part of what we need to do is define what that is, which we can do through our creations. I do not want to connect just on the surface. To me, the wearable art movement is not about technique or the equipment I use, but it is about feeling and heart. Fashion is looking for somebody to lead them, and it’s like they’re looking for a soul, because women are looking for that now. If they don’t come to terms with this, more and more fashion is going to become less and less.”
Creation for Carter Smith is based on sharing his experiences with others. “I’m learning from women. I’m watching them in the clothes. I’m seeing how the clothes move. And then I can do better. I’m taking something from life—expressing, evolving and making it my own. When you love what you do, there is a communication that goes between you and your work. So the color tells you something, and the way the colors move through each other tells you something, and you learn from the way they move from one side of the fabric to the other. When you participate in something like that, it makes the next steps possible.
“Probably the greatest centering comes from loving and from loving what you do. You have to recognize that you are a good person, that you are a caring person, that you are a forgiving person. There is an energy, an aura that surrounds us, that permeates all life. When I see a woman put on a dress that I’ve designed, all of a sudden I see another energy and it is a transcendent experience.
BIAS “K” DRESS AND VEST of double georgette, discharge/injection multicolor. Model: Malinka. Photograph by Joan Emm.
“I don’t know where my life is heading, but I don’t care either. I look at a bird trying really hard to get somewhere, and it always looks as if it is flying against the wind. It’s like that with life and how we usually exist in a set structure, one that we put so much effort into. Yet, if we would only connect with its energy, that energy will take us there. All we have to do is feel the wind.
BIAS “A” DRESS of silk gauze with spot pattern. Model: Nicole. Photograph by Carolyn Ross.
“A lot of people feel that life is about the struggle, and that once you give up the struggle, the real part is over. People get caught up in success and lose touch with others and life around them. If something good is happening for us, we can take it and help others.
“We be-come spiritual vehicles. I personally feel that I’m a guide, that I can talk with people and teach them about themselves. Or I can put a piece of clothing on them and let the clothing explain it.
“I once conducted a workshop in Germany. One woman sold her car just to take the session. I told the participants that it’s not what they know and learn, but how they feel when they leave. It was a workshop that they could apply to every part of their lives. They would recognize some of their creative spirit and potential.
“I showed those four women what I have accomplished during my professional life. I revealed my secrets and gave them a big head start. But I also talked with them about life, about feeling and about love. I talked with them about what they were going through. I said, this is where our lives change. We don’t know it yet, but when we leave, we will be a little bit different and a little more special. Then, anything can happen.
“So I was communicating that they have to find the answers that make sense to them. They have to find out where their power is, where their love is, and where they connect. That is part of the spirit world and the world of life. I say that if you don’t believe in miracles and magic then you don’t believe in yourself.
“I can’t make enough clothes now, and in order to move forward, I need people to help who are committed and have vision. I need people with heart. I need people with soul. I need those who care and can be part of a family. The challenge is to see how far I can go in a giving and loving way. And I will go just as far as I can to make that happen.”
SUGGESTED READING
Benesh, Carolyn L. E. “Carter Smith: Stirring the Soul.” Ornament Volume 21, No. 1 (1997) 42-47.
––––. “Shibori Unbound.” Ornament Volume 24, No. 2 (2000): 12-13.
––––. “Teri Jo Summer: Embracing the Creative Spirit.” Ornament Volume 27, No. 3 (2004): 42-47.
Brito, Karren K. Shibori: Creating Color & Texture On Silk. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications: 2003.
Duncan Aimone, Katherine. The Fiberarts Book of Wearable Art. New York: Lark Books: 2002.
Frankl, Elizabeth. “Carter Smith: Shibori Treasures.” Ornament Volume 30, No. 3 (2007): 20-21.
Leventon, Melissa. Fashion And Anti-fashion. New York: Thames & Hudson, Inc.: 2005.
Patterson, Sunita. “Dyemaster, Designer, Philosopher, Teacher.” FiberArts Volume 34, No. 4 (2008): 44-47.
Wada, Yoshiko Iwamoto. Memory on Cloth. Shibori Now. Toyko: Kodansha International Ltd.: 2002.
The late Carolyn L.E. Benesh was Coeditor of Ornament, beloved wife and mother of Robert and Patrick, and dear friend of Carter Smith. This article was originally printed in Volume 21.1, 1997.
BIAS “K” DRESS of double georgette, dark discharge shibori. Model: Malinka. Photograph by Joan Emm.
Related Reading
Exhibition
The late Carolyn L. E. Benesh was Coeditor of Ornament and Patrick’s mother, Robert’s wife and dear friend. She had been fighting stage IV breast cancer for two years when she passed away in 2020. Carolyn and Robert began the magazine as the Bead Journal in 1974, with encouragement from his major professor Dr. Boyd Walker at UCLA, family and friends. Their wonderful journey of 50 years has been full of struggle and joy, as they documented the human tradition of wearable expression. Her joy was infectious, and her laughter rang out to embrace those around her. She was dear friends with Carter Smith, and wrote two cover features on his work, in 2009 and 1997. She also attended a shibori workshop at Carter’s Nahant, Massachusetts residence with Robert, where many laughs were shared, good food eaten and vibrant conversations had. Here we revisit her first big interview with Carter, where he’s in his prime, energetically exploring himself, the artistic process and humanity’s vulnerability.
