Walking the Walls with Jean Smith

There's a moment in the documentary "The Shield Around The K" where Jean Smith stands on, dances on, and kicks an electric guitar while singing the "how does it feeeeel" part of Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone". David Lester briefly mock-riffs the cock-rock of the Hendrix version before the two turn on a dime into Mecca Normal's  menacing classic "I Walk Alone". How it feels is pretty fucking seminal. But "I Walk Alone" always has been a gut punch. Even corporate music dinosaur Rolling Stone Magazine finally came around to it a month ago, citing it in their Essential Riot Grrrl Guide last month.

Jean Smith has been painting self portraits since she was 13. She has released over a dozen Mecca Normal albums with Lester over more than 3 decades. She formed 2 Foot Flame in the mid nineties, releasing a couple records with them. A solo album on Kill Rock Stars followed in 2000. Jean is a filmmaker. She's also written several novels and has become an oft in demand voice on feminism.

I come to doing this interview merely as a fanboy. A few years ago I did a piece of stenciled street art with her face and the word AGITATE over her head. Somehow it came to her attention and well, here we are. I asked if she wanted to participate in this Pandemic Series of artist interviews, and she said, yes.

Hi, Jean! How are you feeling? How's your overall health?

I feel pretty good thanks, although I was interested to see a list of fairly subtle mental health indicators that rang some bells, so I know I'm a little off in terms of how I'm being affected. I like checking myself against known symptoms so I can address such things before they become problematic.

I had an advantage of following what was happening quite early as the Washington state outbreak took place because we were booked to open for Bikini Kill in Olympia and Seattle. It seemed to take forever for their government to announce a limitation on large gatherings. It was such a relief. I still follow their pandemic details as we are some number of weeks behind them here in BC, but we seem to have a pretty good grip on the situation. No lock-downs as of yet. I have a feeling the government here is factoring in certain amount of activity to allow for herd immunity, but that's just me speculating.

I may be wrong, but didn't you recently buy a house? If so, how does one move during a global pandemic?

I am looking for a location to open the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change where all types of artists can stay while they're working on projects that intend to change the world. I was very close to securing a viable house just as things started going sideways. Some people panic buy tins of tuna, evidently I panic buy houses. I got to the accepted offer stage before I'd even seen it in person, but my research came up with issues I couldn't ignore, so it's back to looking and now waiting to see how the real estate market changes.

Now, with things as they are, a somewhat more ambitious version of the residency is formulating. It should be a separate, self-contained building where visiting artists can buckle down on projects that intend to change the world in a private environment of self-sufficiency.

This sounds like a higher price bracket to me, but folks I know in the real estate industry are saying hang onto cash and wait for prices to drop.

As for moving, I would have had to stay put and wait until a safer time.

Many of my artist friends are finding it difficult to make art right now. Are you finding any inspiration in this mess?

I've recently been doing some of my best work to date as my creativity is the sort that thrives under pressure and during adversity -- partly because that's where it originated (in the 1970s) and that's what it tends to address. I've painted through moving my parents into a facility, the death of my mom (at 98) and the overall decline of my father, now 95.

I think the performative nature of my process is helpful too. I paint and post work daily on Facebook because I've said that's what I'm doing. There's an accountability involved. The show / art must go on! I know people are inspired by my pushing forward and not getting derailed or depressed. Paintings were recently selling within the first 5 minutes. It's slowed a bit, but I'm still selling almost everything I do and I have a supportive audience, which is something I'm familiar with coming from a music back ground.

I think you've done over 800 paintings in your "No Hat" series, and it seems you've now shifted to bathing caps and scuba gear. Can I ask what the absence of the hat symbolized, and if you're now feeling under water?

I've been painting variations on the the two main themes (hat and no hat) for a few years now. The 11 x 14" $100 USD series began in 2016 with maybe 50 or so titled "The Hat" -- "The Hat #2" "The Hat #3" etc. It went so well that I felt compelled to keep painting people in hats because I didn't want to ruin the whole thing! For all I knew, the actual hat in the painting was an integral part of why they were selling! "No Hat" started very tentatively. It's hard to paint when your fingers are crossed. They sold just fine so I felt free to diversify to various sub series that I come with periodically and add to over time. Headphones, Ruff Collar, Scuba, Aviator. Astronaut is always quick to sell when I do any of them. I archive the paintings chronologically in Facebook albums along with "SOLD" and "Currently Available" etc.  albums. I think the way I've structured selling them on Facebook is part of my success. The people collecting them plot and plan which ones they want to buy next, hoping to get in there before someone else does.

The last few months have been record breakers at around 80 paintings each month, but now I'm not sure where things will go. I feel like the business I built up is now in jeopardy, but, to be fair, painting sales since the pandemic started have actually been remarkably good, but... monitoring sales against the backdrop of financial ruin, illness and death feels sinister. In recent months, an individual collector has been buying about half of what I paint and post. Immediately. I can feel things slowing down. Paintings that previously sold in the first 5 minutes are available for hours... and beyond. But that slowing down might be temporary. I just need to stay the course.

Being in a punk rock band for 35 years is an excellent proving ground for ducking curve-balls. I admit, I had been allowing myself to toy with the scenario that things were really gonna work out! I was gonna buy a great place to make available as an artist residency as well as creating a model for acquiring property for cultural activists, and now I fear I sound like I'm whining about a non-problem... lady who sells art online can't afford to buy a house... boo hoo. It's all been so wildly successful I can't really complain.

Although you're in Vancouver, I know you keep an eye on U.S. politics. I have to ask the person who wrote "I Walk Alone" your thoughts on our current president and the allegations against his challenger?

Y'all gots to get rid of that guy. Those are my thoughts on the matter.

Has dating gotten any easier since The Observer?

About 5 years ago, I decided that I didn't want to have a romantic partner. I encountered way too much bamboozling, hoodwinking and other forms of manipulation. Just not into it. I'm very happy single. To be 60, making a living as a painter with no one to answer to is really fantastic. Even writing that kinda makes me wanna jump up and clap my hands wildly.

What has been the most challenging part of this crisis for you?

I was very concerned about a couple of friends who didn't seem to me to be up to speed early on. That was very stressful. My m.o. is to not go anywhere. I prefer solitude to socializing. I get groceries and art supplies delivered. It can be challenging in the evening when I'm most negative. I veer into lamenting that good parts of life won't return, but I recognize the trajectory and know it'll all be brighter in the morning.

What are some of your coping mechanisms?

Painting is where I can really let go of the current situation. I'm in a really good position personally. I paint at home and I don't have obligations to meet other than staying in contact with my dad, but I do have friends and family who are quite vulnerable, so I do some philosophical preparation in terms of how I regard life, which includes savoring thoughts of what a great life I've had so far and how amazing it is that any of us are here at all. I think trying to prepare a little bit for the possibility of a death, will reduce some of the disorientation that could be hard to recover from. I'm not dwelling on death, but I'm consciously regarding how I usually think of my death -- or my friends' -- as something way off in the future. I think allowing a new awareness to be available is helpful. Actually, I found I adapted very quickly to our new reality, in part because I've been in crisis mode with my elderly parents for the past 4 years and this seems like an extension of that, in a way.

Other coping mechanisms include breathing exercises. Yoga. Trying to do 20 minutes of cardio three times a week, which is a bunch of kicking, punching, jumping and flailing without any choreography or counting involved. I have some weights, so I do some of that as well. Eat healthy. Get enough sleep. Try not to fall into negativity.

I was asked to make a quick video the other day to answer questions for a music magazine. I really didn't want to do it, but I actually felt quite a lot better afterwards. I felt more like myself in a public persona mode than I have experienced for a while.

 Everybody seems to be Zooming now. Are you and David Zooming at all?

Like, to each other? We talk land line to land line once a week. He's focused on a graphic novel project and working from home. After 35 years, I don't think we are gonna forget what the other one looks like, so no need for Zoom. No actual Zoom candidates on the horizon, no. I don't have a webcam or a mic in my computer.

From the last Mecca Normal show before the crisis. Photo by Bob Hanham

What's the thing/place you wish you could do/go but can't right now?

I have a very quiet life so this self-isolation gig isn't that far from how I usually live. I paint in the first half of the day, then I walk the 10 blocks or so to buy food in maybe 4 or 5 small shops. I make a point of having short exchanges with cashiers, so that my brain thinks it has accomplished some sort of socializing. It's quite easily fooled, my brain... or maybe it really does only require minor interactions. I could use a few more laughs, that's for sure!

Done any binge watching, book reading, game playing?

I'm pretty big on Netflix (sans chill) at the best of times. Reality shows, British crime series, documentaries.

Favorite work of art in Vancouver?

My long-standing underground rock duo Mecca Normal.

Is there a song stuck in your head right now?

No, but I still hear my 8th grade Home Ec teacher saying, "wipe up spills as they happen" every time I spill something.

If you could hoard one food item (guilt free), what would it be?

I guess it would be krill or whatever it is lobster like to eat so I can feed several hundred of them in the live tank I don't know why I don't already have on the roof of my penthouse apartment.

Do you know anyone personally who has contracted the virus?

I've read FaceBook posts about the illness written by several people who had the virus in its milder form. No hospitalization.

How do you think this all ends?

I think we'll have a cycle of reduced restrictions followed by more freedom with a return to limitations whenever the virus surfaces until there is either a vaccine or we reach herd immunity at which point, if people do get it, there will be health care services available. I doubt there will be as many large gatherings for music, boozing and food -- and likely far less recreational travel for the foreseeable. I don't think there will be the drastic, long-lasting reductions in freedom that some people anticipate. I tend to think most things will return more or less to how they were.

Thanks, Jean! Be well.