"a way to travel without checking my baggage" - by Bertrell smith

Bertrell at our May 2017 workshop

Bertrell Smith is an amazingly talented artist who practices in different media: painting, writing, music, video and more. He has been writing in Green Windows workshops for several years. We asked him to share some of his art as well as a few words about his artistic process. Thank you, Bertrell! 

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"Crossing the Street " Mix media on Paper 2015, Bertrell Smith

When I create a work of art a lot of things happen or don't happen. If I'm painting I might make  a thumbnail drawing  while listening to random recordings. I usually find an error, a dot or something, in the canvass and adjust to it.

When writing a rap I jot down a few ideas about the direction for the rap in general and hope I finish it one day. In general this is how I do what I do or what I'm trying to do in the creative realm.

I often question why on earth am I doing these things. Then I remember why and I proceed with caution. It's a way to travel without checking my baggage, I tell myself. I usually put all my materials in one area and plan to spend from a hour to a week or more discussing my problems with them be it the canvas, a musical recording, a piece of paper or video etc. 
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When I waltz into Green Windows to write, I do something similar. I ask, "Why am I here?" I eventually remember why, eat some pastries and unleash  a tension on the page that I've been storing for such an occasion. Green Windows writing workshop in many ways mirrors my creative  process. I wish I could find a workshop that helps me in the other areas with the same level of consistency. 

​- Bertrell Smith

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"X marked" Mix media on Cement board 2016, Bertrell Smith

Commands 
By Bertrell Smith
(Written in a Green Windows workshop, January 2014)

Shut up don't listen to your sorry selfishness. The version of you at this moment of time will be thrown away. I am not playing with you. Ball it up and let the smell from it take you away. Don't talk back to me in predictable anger it will do you no good. I'm happy you are here with me in a dark sadistic way. Now leave all that you know quickly and sweep up the floors. The floor covered with images of your self you placed there in haste, Make a noise, A new one. Not joyful not bitter. Something mechanical and happy. It's not a request you can ignore. I'm commanding you to be a subject of little insight and much pity. You shall grow as I say you will. The descriptions of you will fade and be forgotten as has been stated in the writings on the floor. You will mop after you sweep. I will let you take time to feel horror or hunger, Only one. There is no out at this only in at this. It is not a riddle only a lapse of a memory you wish to forget. Slow down let the pressure inside. To go in .

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