Kiara Smith

Your work explores vulnerability, heartbreak, and emotional introspection. What usually comes first for you – a personal emotion, a visual image, or a story?

It usually starts with an intense emotion, sometimes even an emotion that someone else is experiencing that I am able to relate to or empathise with. The emotion demands to be expressed and then I start thinking about different stories, images and scenes where this emotion makes sense which leads me to the artwork that I make.

There is a strong cinematic quality in the composition. Are you inspired by film, photography, or specific visual scenes when creating your work?

Sometimes when I create artwork I do kind of picture it as a scene in a movie and I am inspired by film when it comes to deciding on lighting and the tone of the painting.

You mention that music is one of your sources of inspiration. How do songs influence the mood, imagery, or narrative of your artworks?

Music is such a beautiful art form and it tends to invoke many different kinds of emotions in a way that makes you feel heard and understood. Often I will be listening to a song that ends up naming the emotion that I am feeling and that leads to me analysing different ways in which this song applies to my life. Sometimes it’s just a line in the song that ends up showing an image in my head that I feel the urge to recreate. Also, songs sometimes bring up old feelings that you’ve forgotten about and that helps me to come up with ideas for artworks.

How do you balance realism and symbolism in your creative process?

I love symbolism and metaphors and hiding the different layers of meanings within a painting. However, I never want the symbolism to become a barrier between the artwork and the viewer. Therefore, I do put quite a bit of realism in my paintings to allow people to understand the message I’m trying to convey as the whole point for me is for others to be able to relate to the scenes that I paint.

Do you see your work as a form of healing, self-expression, or communication with others who may have felt the same way?

All of the above. I find healing in expressing my emotions with art and being able to say something without speaking. I find that when I create art that I end up processing these emotions and it allows me to heal while expressing myself creatively. I’m also interested in relating with people and bonding over these shared emotions. It does feel a bit scary to reveal so much about how I’m feeling through my art but knowing that there are others who relate to it makes it all worth it.

How does being based in Cape Town shape your artistic identity, if at all?

Being based in Cape Town hasn’t had a strong influence on what I choose to paint. My work is primarily driven by an interest in human emotion and connection, and I find myself drawn to themes that people can relate to regardless of their background or location. I’m fascinated by the shared experiences that make us human—love, loss, vulnerability, resilience—and those themes tend to take precedence over a sense of place and culture in my work.

As an emerging artist, what themes or emotions do you hope to explore more deeply in your future work?

At the moment I am working on a series exploring sadness, grief and heartbreak, however, in the future I would really love to explore the happier parts of the human experience such as joy and excitement. I think those emotions are equally as important and often underrepresented. I would also love to explore current world events and the emotions that they evoke for people around the world.