Dad, daughter interpret each other's artworks

Walk into the Arts Council main gallery in downtown Cape Girardeau, and see work hung in pairs. On the left, an original artwork, and on the right, the interpretation. One is rendered in fabrics, the other in paint. One by the daughter, the other by the father.

That's the setup for the show "Interpretations: Dad and Daughter," now on display at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, 16 N. Spanish St. in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Hannah Smith of St. Louis and Dave Walker of Columbia, Missouri, collaborated remotely on the show for several months, each creating a work and sending an image of it to the other, to be inspired by and reacted to, Walker said.

Smith is a painter strongly influenced by Gustav Klimt's mix of minimalism and "overwhelming" detail, and Dr. Seuss' imaginary worlds; and Walker creates more realism-type landscapes or scenes with scraps of fabric.

Nature is a common thread throughout the show, as are flowers.

Dave Walker and Hannah Smith discuss their works in the show "Interpretations: Dad and Daughter" at the opening reception Friday, March 6, 2020, at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, 16 N. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau.Marybeth Niederkorn

The latter pushed Walker out of his comfort zone, he said, because while he has worked for decades creating landscapes, he had to work to understand how he would interpret Smith's floral paintings.

Walker was an art teacher in the 1970s, and after he moved on to a more lucrative career path, he said, he worked in watercolor and other media as a hobby.

Then he started piecing quilt tops, and was particularly inspired by the quilt shows in Paducah, Kentucky.

Realizing he had plenty of scrap pieces of fabric left over, he said, he started to craft them into landscapes.

Even though he works in fabric, "I wanted my art to look more like a painting, because I'm a painter," Walker said.

Smith said from the time she was a small child, she was surrounded by art and encouraged to make. "I don't know if I was a more talented child, but I was definitely nurtured and encouraged to create," she said, and as an adult, creates paintings and owns a company managing and decorating Airbnb properties.

Walker said the show's origins were rooted in a show in Columbia that paired artists with writers, and a poem reacting to a particular painting would be printed and hung next to it for the show.

"It was a great show, and I liked the concept," he said.

He said the idea felt like a natural move for both of them.

"We have always had a commonality in love and art," Smith said, "and in this show, our contrasts come through."

Smith said she would use the pieces her father created as less of a strict guideline, and more an inspiration piece. "I would take the spark of the idea and follow my intuition," she said.

Walker said he and Smith have worked to nurture, encourage and push each other artistically. "We've never been critical of each other's work. We've always collaborated, never been competitive. I think that's important."

"Interpretations: Dad and Daughter" contains 40 works, 20 in fabric and 20 in paint, and is on display through March 25.

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