JudiRB’s blog

“A Journey through the Heart”:

Arianne Vota Smeets

As you entered Arianne Vota Smeet’s exhibit, you saw heart-shaped objects 

mounted onto canvases on the walls. Music played and as the tracks progressed, a lamp with a sign that read, “now playing” was placed in front of each canvas.

The crowd eagerly followed the lamp, absorbing the multi-dimensional pieces constructed of clay and other materials such as fabric and dirt on the canvases in front of them.   
 

 

Smeets, 30, created her debut collection, Aorta Transformata and it was displayed at Kendall College in September. The exhibit depicted sculpted hearts combining the use of clay, paint and decorations through various mediums specific to each piece.

The collection included thirty-three pieces total; twenty-four pieces displayed the heart through various stages of life including life, death, rebirth and openness. Nine pieces stood alone telling their own narratives including one in remembrance of her dog and another in honor of her brother and a cancer patient survivor.

 

 Five culinary students created dishes that interpreted five pieces from the show. One of the dishes included spicy blackened chicken over bitter mixed greens, topped with colorful fruit salsa and was paired with a piece titled “ A Conflict of Interest.”

 

The exhibit, which chronicles the various stages and relationships that Smeet’s has gone through represents the different phases she has been through to get to where she is today. For Smeet’s friend Lisa Fairman, the exhibit has served as a guide through her life and believes that it will do the same for others. “I remember going over to her apartment and I would know where I was in my life depending on what heart I was attracted to,” she said.

 

 A former middle school teacher and now culinary student, Smeets didn’t plan to become an artist. In fact she’s never planned to become any one thing. But Smeets has been able to incorporate her natural creative sense in order to reinvent herself again and again.

 

 “I don’t like to define myself as just one thing. I kind of think of myself in layers because there’s different layers to who I am,” she said. “There’s a teacher layer, there’s a chef layer, there’s an artist layer. It doesn’t just have to be one thing.”

 

 Smeets’ best friend Kristine Kavanaugh said she has had the luxury of being able to watch her evolve within these layers. “She’s always been a very creative person. Her mom’s a creative person and I think she just grew up with that,” she said.

 

Smeets remembers her mom would take her to a craft store and tell her to pick something out. “Okay so what are we making today?” she would ask Smeets.

Smeets remembers specifically always coloring in coloring books with her mom. They would also paint figurines, stitch and cook a lot.

 

Even as a middle school teacher Smeets allowed her creative side to come out more than her fellow co-workers, which won her the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club Local Teacher of the Year Award. Kavanaugh remembers how engaging her lesson plans use to be. “If you listen to some of the lesson plans that she had, she was a phenomenal teacher,” she said.

 

For example, when Smeets introduced poetry to the class, she had her students anonymously write out something they had survived. She read each story aloud to the class, including her own and discovered amazing, heart wrenching stories. “We don’t know whose story is whose,” Smeets said. 

“The next time you think about being mean to somebody think about all the things that people have already survived and lets not add to that. Let’s not create another situation that they have to possibly survive.”

 

While teaching different religions of the world in social studies, Smeets would incorporate yoga once a week to help them learn about meditation and different religions.

 

Smeets taught in Orange County, California for three years in 2000 and was getting home sick for her hometown of Elwood, Illinois. She began cooking to bring some of that “home feeling” back to her. “I love to feed people,” she said. Smeets knew she always wanted to go to culinary school, she just thought that it would be in her 40’s and 50’s. One of her goals has always been to open up a coffee 

(This is Arianne's theme song)

shop named “VOTA.”

“I wanted to make that dream a reality,” she said. “I knew I could cook but I wanted to be a chef and know the business stuff.”

 

After making a life-changing decision involving her marriage in 2007, Smeets decided to change gears. She went to Kendall College, a culinary school in Chicago and just graduated from the accelerated culinary arts program Monday.

While studying at Kendall, Smeets began creating small art pieces in her spare time, including 2-inch hearts encased in glass. This eventually led to her passion to pursue art as a career.

 

Fairman recalls how little by little those hearts began getting bigger. “As she started to change and realize her true self  that glass had to disappear and those hearts started to get bigger and they started to spill off the side of the canvas.”

 

Since her exhibit at Kendall College, Smeets and her friends have seen the huge impact that her art has had on people.

Fairman remembers walking by and hearing people relate each heart to a time in their lives. “It generated the urge in people to share stories with each other,” she said. “That’s a sign of very powerful art.”

David Wade, a fellow Kendall student was one of the five students who created a dish at the two tasting receptions. “I think her art is very inspiring and touching,” he said. “A lot of people can relate to her art…it represents so much more than just putting a brush to a canvas.”

The thing that Fairman liked the most about her friends exhibit was that, as Wade described, her art is so relatable. “You don’t have to know her to really get the most out of her art,” she said.

Smeets prides herself on putting her emotions and literally her heart into all of her pieces. She bases all of her work on personal life experiences and says her creative process always starts with life. “I know when I get it right because I cry.”

 

Smeets inspiration comes from the images that pop up in her mind whenever she’s gone through a difficult time in her life. Since she was 14-years-old, whenever she’s been in a hurtful relationship or situation, images of what her heart must look like at that moment appear in her head. “I decided to take all of the energy I had put into relationships and put it into myself,” she said.

 

One of her most memorable pieces titled, “Break,” is the portrayal of a broken heart and symbolizes the emotion and pain Smeets has gone through and that she went through when making the piece. She calls this her signature piece because it set her back weeks.

“It was the slowest piece and very painful to make,” she said. “It’s the most accurate piece I’ve made.”

This piece, painted red and free-formed with clay into the shape of a heart is unique to the collection because it is mounted on a white canvas. Smeets’ reasoning for this is so she could depict a near death experience as it is often portrayed in the movies when everything goes white. “Everything changes after that and nothing is ever the same,” she said.

 

Starting February 6, Smeets’ Aorta Transformata exhibit will be on display at Flourish Studios in Chicago until the end of the month. Smeets hopes to write a book of art and to have her work recognized nationally. She is also in the very early stages of conceptualizing her coffee house and wine bar called VOTA where she can continue to express herself creatively in the kitchen and on canvas. “I want people to see all the stages of life in a beautiful way,” she said. Even the bad ones.”

(Pictures provided by http://votasmeets.com/Site/Welcome.html)

Anna Fong answered the studio door dressed in a black sweater tunic with leggings to match. A brown scarf casually hung from her neck. Her dark, curly hair, parted to one side rested right above her shoulders. As she walked over to the table she apologized for her flip-flops explaining that it was her “casual day.”

 

The far wall was decorated from top to bottom with a colorful array of neatly raveled thread carefully clustered by shades of color. Sounds of Spanish conversation quietly lingered from the back of the room where two women were working.

 

“Crunch, crunch, crunch.” Without hesitation she began cutting through a big piece of black fabric etched with white lines. “I hope you don’t mind if I work while you talk to me,” she said.                                          

                                                                                                            

She continued cutting while soft, soulful music played in the background. Her computer table was in an organized chaos. Pictures of friends were mounted behind the table next to a small picture of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and other images that Fong calls “inspirational collages.” Anna Fong was in her natural element as she balanced sporadic sketching and worked on a client’s order while conducting an interview all at the same time.

 

Fong, 30, has designed for a number of celebrities including designer, model and author, Kimora Lee Simmons, actress Nadine Velazquez, radio personality Bionce Foxx, and actress, singer, model and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.

Half Guatemalan and half Chinese, Fong always knew what she wanted to be. As a child growing up in Humboldt Park, Fong remembers making clothes for her Barbie’s in a method that her mother wasn’t completing fond of. I use to make clothes out my socks for my Barbie’s… especially the ones with the ruffles; I use to love to tear those up!”  She said. “I didn’t think of using fabric, I just thought, ‘“hey put a hole in my sock and it’s a dress.’”

 

Fong’s younger sister, Jessica Fong remembers the first outfit her sister created; it was for her eighth grade graduation. “It was a black and royal purple baby doll dress. Long sleeves if I remember correctly,” she said.

She continued to practice this creativity throughout her high school years. Lizeth Herrera, one of Fong’s friends from high school remembers always seeing her with a pencil and a notebook “sketching away.” “I always thought she was into animation, she would always draw these characters,” she said.

 

Jessica remembers Fong’s creativeness growing up as well. She said she always use to create great drawings and paintings and remembers one in particular. “There was this great oil pastel of a brown horse which I still remember to this day.  It was very realistic and charming,” she said

 

Shortly after, Fong’s drawings shifted into the fashion realm. Lizeth remembers being intrigued by her designs as she drew them. “I remember ball gowns and it was always things that were really out of the box and I would think to myself that’s beautiful,” Herrera said.

 

Herrera described Fong as never really interested in what was happening in the classrooms. She even remembers how she designed her own prom dress, a burgundy, form fitting dress.“ I was trying to like just get through chemistry and she was already sewing away,” she said.

Jessica remembers Fong’s disinterest in traditional schooling as well. “She did okay in school, but she was never really into it,” she said. “ She was really into her art classes.”

 

Described as a strong leader and a free spirit by friends and family, while the majority of her friends were on summer vacation, Fong spent her high school summers in sewing class. “She always knew what she wanted to do, she was getting a head start,” Herrera said.

 

A product of private schools, Fong went on to attend Columbia College Chicago and graduated in 2001. She started her own clothing line that included denim separates and jersey dresses and began previewing the line at local fashion shows. Despite these efforts; however, she knew something was lacking. “I just didn’t feel like I needed to be here at this moment in my life…I needed to get more experience,” she said.

 

Fong knew that she wanted to gain industry knowledge and she knew that she wanted to work for a designer to gain this experience. “I didn't know how to market my line and there were many components of the business that I still had to develop and learn more about, such as production, showrooms, tradeshows, networking, fabrics and sales,” she said.

 

Shortly after in 2002, Fong moved to New York and shacked up with her best friend there until she landed her first job at Chaps Ralph Lauren in the technical design department. “It was a great experience, I think it really developed me as a person and as a designer because I realized that there was still so much out there that I needed to learn,” she said as she paused to grab something from the end of the table and continued cutting.

She learned valuable experience in working in an environment that was constantly moving ahead, was competitive and was extremely challenging due to deadlines.

According to Fong, the environment offered freedom for creativity but maintained a corporate feel to it as well. “It made me have a thicker skin to things and made me learn how to work in that kind of environment.”

 

Fong returned to Chicago as her base because, as she joked, it is much easier to get square footage. Her studio that opened this year is located in the Chicago Arts District located near the Pilsen neighborhood.

 

Fong has participated in both years of The Chicago Latino Fashion Week. Herrera remembers how chaotic it was for Fong behind the scenes. In the midst of stylists trying to do her hair, Fong was sewing on a button that had fallen off one of her designs and trying to solve the problem of a model not being able to fit in her dress. In addition, one of the coordinators had asked Fong if she could quickly make a sketch so it could be displayed.

She described the scene, models running around naked chaos all around. “And there she was in the corner, drawing away,” Herrera said. “I never see her overwhelmed though…but it’s because she loves it so much.”

 

Fong continues to evolve her creativeness that she discovered as a young girl. Friends and co-workers often describe her work ethic as very busy but you would never tell by looking at Fong because they always see a calm and serene demeanor.

Her personal assistant, Barb Klikuszowian can attest to this.“ She is always working on something, she’s a very hard-working woman. Even when the pressure is on she makes it happen and never complains, she is always cool and collected,” she said.

 

Along with noticing Fong’s boisterous and non-stop work ethic on the outside, Herrera described Fong as quiet and nice but “internally loud.” “Some of us are vocally loud, she is so internally loud that it reflects on her designs and on her passion for what she does,” Herrera said.

Along with gaining inspiration and passion from her diverse heritage, old films and photographs and the curves of women’s bodies, Fong finds a lot of her inspiration from confident women like herself. 

“They inspire me because of their confidence, the way they perceive the world, their aura,” she said. A confident and curvaceous woman, Rita Hayworth and the 1940’s inspired Fong’s upcoming Spring 2009 collection which includes flirty day dresses and evening cocktail dresses.

 

Although there are many specific things that inspire Fong, she is very aware of her surroundings which enables her to be inspired everyday. “She’s probably got an etch-a-sketch going on in her mind,” Herrera said. She can remember countless times when her and Fong would be in the middle of a conversation and Fong would daze off. “I would say, Anna are you listening!”  Fong would reply, “I’m sorry, I was just thinking of a design.”

 

Fong has been referred to in many of her bios as an up and coming sensation but she realizes that she needs to stop and take note of her success. “ When you’re in it so deep you don’t have a moment to really appreciate it, so I make myself take that time to really look at what’s happening and really feel it,” she said. “When you see your designs on TV or someone wearing your designs…the moment is always surreal.”  
 

As much as she tries to appreciate the development of her career she often finds herself in a tug of war with being overwhelmed in surreal moments and then in the very next, “dumbing the moment down” by saying anyone could do that. “I want a moment to feel everything that’s been happening; I don’t know when that moment will come,” she said with scissors in her hand.

 

 Along with a new line, Anna is in the process of trying out for the next season of Project Runway and will be featured in the January issue of Latina Magazine and the March issue of Lucky Magazine. As for staying in Chicago, Anna said; “I’m here right now, we’ll see what happens. I’d love for Chicago to remain my base though.” She refuses to own a car to insure that she won’t be “bound to stay here or limit herself to possibilities.” She wants to be able to get up, take her stuff and go.

She told Herrera, “I want to be everywhere, "I want to dress everyone, I want the world to look classy.”

 (Images provided by chicagolatinofashion.com/ designers.php & clutchmagonline.com/.../ ones-to-watch/anna-fong/)

The life-size ceramic sculpture with its claw-like outstretched hands and round facial features would have stood guard outside the chamber where the bodies of dead kings were laid to warn unwanted visitors to take heed. At the Field Museum, it looms large over the room evoking the Aztec culture that created it. 

 

The Aztec Empire has come to life once again in Chicago at the Field Museum. “The Aztec World” opened this month and includes hundreds of artifacts and works of art gathered from 15 museums in Mexico 14 institutions in the U.S.

 

Along with the sculpture, Mictlantecuhtli (meek-tlahn-tay-coot-lee), the exhibit includes gold jewelry which Aztecs nobles wore, colored ceramics like rattles and smoking pipes, huge stone alters weighing in at more than a thousand pounds, colorful pottery, pieces of cloth worn by Aztec women and many more artifacts that have never been displayed outside of Mexico until now.

 

When they think of the Aztecs, some people immediately think of a culture that were obsessed with human sacrificing But this exhibit examines the everyday lives of men and women from all levels of society, from commoners to kings, and explains their roles in society.

 

People from near and far are coming to take part in this display of a piece of history. Beverly Daniel of Tennessee came to Chicago for a week and said she’s been back three times just to see the exhibit. “I really enjoy it, I love the history,” she said. I think the main thing it teaches is survival and how important it was for them. It also teaches a lot about their spirituality and how everyone can relate.

 

The exhibit also displays how spirituality and beliefs played an important role in the Aztec culture. Many of the ceramics were created in honor of the many god’s the Aztecs’ believed in.

 

The Aztec Mayor stood in the center of the city Tenochititlan. Here, priests re-enacted mythological deeds of their gods in scared rituals. 

“It’s nice to know whatever your spirituality is, it doesn’t matter, it’s up to you. It all comes together in one,” Daniel said.

 

Rosenda Moore of Mississippi has Aztecs roots and said the exhibit is well presented and very easy to follow. “They did a wonderful job for the money they spent to get everything here.” She knows there is much more to be discovered but acknowledges she doesn’t know how they will be able to gather the rest since much of original grounds of the civilization is covered with modern buildings now in Mexico City.

 

The exhibit is broken up into many sections; each one includes an introduction of the Aztecs contributions that many of us use today including agriculture, religion, hobbies, art, mathematics and more. For example, the Aztecs created the most accurate calendar to date, more accurate than even the one we use today.

 

Moore, a Latino, believes that this exhibit is important for people to see, especially the people of Chicago since it is such a big metropolitan city and many Latinos live here. “They have to be exposed to our incredible culture,” she said. “It’s great!”

 

Daniel also believes that the exhibit has great influential potential. “I think it’s good for the younger ones,” she said. She joked that if a pair of boots displayed in the exhibit was in stores today, all the young girls would be wearing them.

 

Sean Francis, a professor of Latino cultural studies at Columbia College says he hopes the exhibit will spark further interest in people to research different cultures, arts and religions.  Like Moore, he also believes that it is important for Latino people to be educated about their history.

“I think the architecture, social protocols, sculpture and philosophy of the Aztecs could be a source of pride to Latinos seeking self-definition and roots.”

 

The exhibit, created with curators from both Mexico and Chicago, will be shown only at The Field Museum. It will run until April 19. All artifacts will then be returned to their original museums. For more information visit the Field Museum Web site at http://www.fieldmuseum.org/aztecs.

 (Image provided by http://www.fieldmuseum.org/aztecs/highlights_2.asp)

Bronzeville, a city in Chicago formally known as Douglas Park and historically known as "the black metropolis" is an up and coming area. It sometimes is referred to as the Harlem of Chicago. Many of the properties have been renovated and new businesses are continuing to pop up throughout the neighborhood. With all of the changes going on, there was a conflict of whether or not the neighborhood would retain the culture that it has long been know for. I went straight to the sources, the neighborhood.