DR. CHARLES SMITH
BORN 1940
Dr. Charles Smith’s path began in New Orleans, where he was born, to the Chicago area, where he grew up, to Vietnam, where he fought in the U.S. Marine Corps, to Aurora, Illinois where he became an artist in the fullest sense, and to Hammond, Louisiana, where he continues to be an artist in the fullest sense. His life experiences include ordained minister, social worker, community organizer, U.S. Marine, veteran, historian, educator, archivist, activist, orator, and elder, all contributing to his main occupation as sculptor and museum-maker.
Charles Smith was born on November 22, 1940 in New Orleans. His mother, Bertha Mary Smith, was an inspiration and vital force in his life. After the death of her husband (date unknown, presumably in the early to mid 1950s) she moved to Chicago, found work, established a home, then brought her three children to Chicago. In 1955, when Dr. Smith was fifteen, Bertha Smith took her children to pay their respects at the funeral of Emmett Till. The experience had a profound affect, embedding searing ideas and feelings about racism, which he later gave expression to in his sculptural environment and archives.
In January 1966 Smith was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps. He served for two years as an infantryman in North and South Vietnam. His experiences in combat left deep physical, psychological, and spiritual wounds, and lasting memories of brutality, pain, suffering, and loss. He was honorably discharged in 1968. From that time until 1986 he had several jobs and a period of married life but his life spiraled downward as his circumstances declined due to his inability to work and his struggles with post-traumatic stress syndrome. Of this time period and his transition to becoming an artist he said:
I was a drug addict, I was lost and confused, full of hate from the racist attitudes that drove me to this point. But then God came and gave me just what I needed. He gave me a weapon that is potent, powerful, and relevant.
As a spontaneously and divinely inspired artist, Dr. Smith’s work is not directed to mainstream art audiences, instead he makes work as gifts for his communities. His work challenges conventional notions of what art is and where we expect to find it. He uses the adopted title “Doctor” to communicate the elevated level of wisdom garnered from his life experiences and work.
