Facebook page: Enid Smith Becker Studio
Instagram: Enid Smith Becker

Representation: My work at The Seattle Art Museum Gallery.
www1.seattleartmuseum.org/rsg/298

Prices: contact me for prices and availability

Artist’s Statement

My paintings are semi-abstracted landscapes inspired in large part by places in the Pacific Northwest. The ocean, fields, mountains and grasslands, these images serve as a bridge between us and the natural world. Within each painting, I create multiple views of the land depicted in order to keep the eye constantly moving over the space.

We are all a product of landscape. In a time when our lands are threatened there is a pressing imperative to find a common vocabulary, to create a reminder of the solace often found in nature. Edmund Burke spoke about the sublime experience and its power to transform the self. I seek a contemporary version of the sublime through the creation of a fluid visual experience; one which mirrors our interactions with time and place. The paintings’ illusion of depth preserves the integrity of the picture plane while the layered rectilinear forms both maintain the illusion and, by their nature, break that very plane.

My art is not a simple depiction of a place but a reminder of our longing for nature and the concomitant complexities of our relationship with the natural world. Each one of us brings our own memories and desires to all we see. They overlap and intersect in a constantly changing dialogue.

Painted in acrylic on canvas, the work is heavily textured in places: fabric, natural materials and paper that represent the human need to touch evinced first by the physical traces of what I have created and then by a kind of haptic call to the viewer; they are a call to be touched and a reminder of how we touch nature can affect us all.

Curriculum vitae

Education/professional:
1990-2022 National Board Certified art teacher, Bellevue School District
2019-2022 Instructor for art methods class (Masters in Teaching) Seattle University
2022 worked as a juror to select artists for Bellevue Bellwether exhibition
2017 Consultant for Art and Physics project at the UW
Studied art at the University of Washington, BA and MA in French Language and Literature

Awards and Publicity:
2021 Third Place in Art Room Gallery Landscape show
2020 Grey Cube Gallery, Best in Show
2019 Published in book issue no. 3 Papeachu Press,” Beginnings and Endings”.
2018 Published in Three Elements Review, issue no. 17
2015 Washington Art Educator’s Association- Secondary Art Educator of the Year award
2003 Outstanding Middle School Educator- Bellevue Youth Link
2002 Article “Human Bodies and Nature Entwine” The Queen Anne News by Maggie Larrick
1994 Washington State Krista McAuliffe Award for educational excellence

Selected Exhibitions:
2023 Seattle Art Fair, SAM Gallery
2023 Seattle Art Museum, “Reedify” two person show
2022 Seattle Art Museum, “Renewal” three person show
2022 Seattle Art Museum, “Evergreen” three person show
2022 Carillon Point, invitational, “landscapes of Mystery” solo show
2022 Centennial Gallery, Kent WA, invitational two person juried show
2022 Seattle Chamber Music Society, solo show
2021 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Solo show
2021 Elizabeth Jones Art center, Portland, OR
2020 bG Gallery, Juried show “Representational Abstract”, Santa Monica, CA
2020 Seattle Art Museum, “Ground Keepers”, Show cancelled due to Covid.
2020 Impact Hub, Solo show, Cancelled due to covid
2019 Seattle Art Musuem “Journeys”, Seattle, WA
2017 Seattle Art Museum “Darks and Lights”, Seattle, WA
2017 Maryhill Museum, Juried show
2017 Pacific Regent, Bellevue, WA, Juried show
2016 Seattle Art Museum Sales Gallery Introductory show, Seattle WA
2015 artEAST, “Call of the Clouds” Issaquah, WA Juried show
2015 The Art Institute of Seattle, teacher show
2014 Johnston Architects, Seattle, WA, solo show
2014 3231 Creatives Gallery, Everett, WA, solo show
2014 The Art Institute of Seattle, teacher show
2013 3231 Creatives Gallery ,”Arts and Letters” Exhibit, Everett, WA
2013 artEAST, “Being Human”, Issaquah, WA Juried show
2012 University House, Seattle, WA Juried show
2012 Honore Bakery, Seattle, WA solo show
2012 Soul Ease Gallery, Kirkland, WA, solo show
2011 Art East Gallery,” Art of the Written Word”, Issaquah, WA
2009 Phinney Ridge Art walk, Seattle, WA
2008 Coffee Animals, Seattle, WA Solo show
2008 Autumn’s Gallery, “Human Nature” Edmonds, WA, Solo show
2006 The Sanctuary Gallery, Redmond, WA, solo show
2005 Soul Ease, Kirkland, WA, solo show
2004 The Fountainhead Gallery, “New Mythologies” Seattle, WA, solo show
2004 David Maritz Gallery, Cameno Island, WA, juried show
2003 On the Edge Gallery, La Conner, WA, solo show
2003 University Unitarian, Seattle, WA, solo show
2002 The Fountainhead Gallery, “Allusions”, Seattle, WA, solo show
2002 The Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, solo show
2001, Robert Canega Gallery, Euguene, OR, juried show
2001 Mary Vitold Gallery, “Vessels” Seattle, WA
2001 The Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, WA , 2 person show
2000 Henry Art Gallery,” The Bash Invitational”, Seattle, WA
1994 Queen Anne Coffee House, Seattle, WA
1994 Art Maven’s Gallery, Solo show, Seattle, WA
1993 We “B” Art Gallery, Solo show
1992 We “B” Art Gallery, “Sticks and Bones” Seattle, WA, 2 person show
1992 Meany Hall, Two-person show

Collections: art in numerous private collections in the US and abroad

Other
2023 Art on CD cover for Kristin Chambers, Brighter Haze
2019 CD cover design for Kristin Chambers, Kissing Ghosts