"Design and "image" are words in Sherri Smith's lexicon that have a special fiber art inflection. For her, "image" means shape or line - some area so defined on the surface of the structure she plaits into a sort of tessellated wall terrain.
An internationally-known artist, Smith has exhibited at four international biennales for fiber art in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has works in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and in corporate collections throughout the U.S.
On account of her own commercial experience, "design" for Smith usually has a commercial connotation although the "problem solving" involved, and the underlying organizational framework of design - the design base, you might say, spills over into her own art work. "The problem-solving" in commercial design has a narrower scope; it's design for something. It's not just the best thing you can think of."
Martha Keller, Ann Arbor News Art Critic
