{"id":72368,"date":"2023-11-26T15:46:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T21:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=72368"},"modified":"2023-11-27T15:57:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T21:57:05","slug":"tony-smith-1939-2023-youre-not-done-with-me-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/tony-smith-1939-2023-youre-not-done-with-me-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Smith (1939 – 2023): You\u2019re not done with me yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h4>\n
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Poster from 3SMITH’s, an exhibit in July 2019 featuring the works of Tony Smith (center) and his sons Willie (left) and Evan (right).<\/p><\/div>\n

One memory of my friend Tony Smith, who died this past Thanksgiving Day, was his penchant for wearing T-shirts. Ever confident in himself, he wasn\u2019t one to hide the paunch such apparel revealed, even emphasizing the tummy bump in drawings of himself \u2014 attire as satire. \u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

I wonder what he would\u2019ve thought if these out-of-context descriptions about him and his artwork, found sprinkled in 15 Bytes articles, were printed on T-shirts (choose a favorite):\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cFancy Bags of Cheap Tricks\u201d
\n\u201cTrap Doors and Fake Bottoms\u201d
\n\u201cDroll Puns and Funny Faces\u201d
\n\u201cA Smart Ass\u201d
\n\u201cBurnt and Over the Hill\u201d
\n\u201cThe Shredder\u201c
\n\u201cWasn\u2019t One to Coddle\u201d<\/span><\/h4>\n

I was fortunate to have met (almost) every Thursday evening at Rio Grande Caf\u00e9 in Salt Lake City with Tony, his best friend the painter Doug Snow, art collector Nick Gosdis, and Tony\u2019s son Willie Smith, from 2005 until 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Well, except Doug died in 2009. Then Nick two years ago \u2014 <\/span>pretty much ending our routine of passing sketches around for others to embellish and modify, talking about art and opera, and solving the world\u2019s problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Tony Smith at the old Rio Grande Caf\u00e9, sending an absent Frank McEntire his regards<\/p><\/div>\n

Having announced I\u2019d miss a few Thursdays in a row prompted the making of a T-shirt (see above). While in Houston, a photo of it was sent to me by the chips and salsa munchers from the Rio. This set the stage for T-shirt taunting, like this one about Willie\u2019s obsession with the sitcom, \u201cJessie.\u201d So, yes, T-shirts were a thing.<\/h4>\n
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Willie Smith receives<\/p><\/div>\n

There are many ways to view someone\u2019s life and art. I\u2019ve listed a few descriptive phrases above that give glimpses about Tony Smith. Some apply to his art, while all apply to who he was. There are others that hint at his legacy that would dress up a T-shirt nicely (choose a favorite):\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cI Find My Juice While Drawing\u201d
\n\u201cNothing is Sacred\u201d
\n\u201cIconoclastic Tinkerer\u201d
\n\u201cIrreverent, Wicked, Sly, Laugh-Out-Loud Funny\u201d
\n\u201cGolf and Cigars Are Not Metaphors\u201d
\n\u201cInfluencer of Generations of Young Artists\u201d
\n\u201cA Professional Fiddler, Professional Goofer who also plays golf\u2014a lot\u201d
\n\u201cImbued with Magic, Possibility, and Surprise\u201d <\/span>\u2014 \u201call legends, of course.\u201d<\/h4>\n

If Tony could choose wording for a couple of T-shirts from these 15 Bytes reviews, I\u2019m pretty sure he\u2019d choose:<\/h4>\n

\u201cAn Educator Who Worked Hard and Was Reasonably Responsible,\u201d and most importantly, \u201cConsumed with Family.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Tony is now gone, I don\u2019t see Willie anymore, and the Rio Grande just isn\u2019t the same funky grand place it used to be since the 2020 earthquake forced it to relocate by the U. of U. campus. But Tony\u2019s influence on my life and art is constant. His intelligence, humor, generosity, and hope for a better world are more than T-shirt slogans.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

In a 15 Bytes article, \u201cTony Rides Again,\u201d much praise is given about him as a teacher and artist. \u201cGoing on like this,\u201d writes Shawn Rossiter, \u201cone might think the artist is dead and this a memorial service. To which one can hear Smith say, \u2018Hell no, you\u2019re not done with me yet.\u2019\u201d And neither are those of us who have had Tony in our lives and are fortunate to see or own work from his astonishing portfolio.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

All images courtesy of the author.<\/p>\n

Information about a memorial service for Tony is forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Read some of our articles on Tony:<\/p>\n

Coloring Outside the Lines: Willie, Evan and Tony Smith<\/a>, July, 2019<\/p>\n

Tony Smith: We\u2019re All Mad Here<\/a>, July, 2019<\/p>\n

For What It\u2019s Worth: The Life and Art of Tony Smith<\/a>, January 2016<\/p>\n

What\u2019s New: Tony Smith<\/a>, January, 2015<\/p>\n

Tony Smith Rides Again<\/a>, May, 2013<\/p>\n

FINALLY . . . a book about Tony Smith<\/a>, November, 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One memory of my friend Tony Smith, who died this past Thanksgiving Day, was his penchant for wearing T-shirts. Ever confident in himself, he wasn\u2019t one to hide the paunch such apparel revealed, even emphasizing the tummy bump in drawings of himself \u2014 attire as satire. \u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1628,"featured_media":72372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,14],"tags":[752],"class_list":["post-72368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in_memoriam","category-visual_arts","tag-tony-smith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_5924-1-e1701121547667.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 05:14:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1628"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72376,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72368\/revisions\/72376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}