Welcome to Amrta Art
Amrta Art announces private showings at the exclusive Golden Door in San Marcos, CA
Solo Show “Integrated” Featured Gallery Banner on Artsy one of nineteen galleries in the world
Debut Solo show “Integrated” Opened September 10th at Shockboxx Gallery and runs until October 31st 2022
Catch Amrta Art and home design on the upcoming season 4 of Westworld on HBO Summer 2022
Articles below:
Canvas Rebel
Meet Christina Elizabeth Smith
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christina Elizabeth Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Christina Elizabeth , thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The project that I have found the most meaningful has been the one I’ve been working on for a couple years, which is my gold series. This series feels like it chose me and is something I am meant to be putting in the world right now.
The Amrta Gold Series is inspired by my years of being a buddhist practitioner and the profound significance and strength of gold. In Japanese culture gold is poured in the cracks of broken pottery “golden joinery,” Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. The idea is that when the items become broken and the gold is poured in, the item becomes more beautiful.
I believe are the same. Through our suffering, we pour metaphorical gold into the broken parts of ourselves each time we rise up from our suffering. Therefore fortifying ourselves more and more. I wants to paint everything gold as a reminder that the gold is what we have been all along. Perfect gold. Never broken, but forever breaking to get back to our purest and most perfect state. I carve into these pieces modern (and sometimes crass) statements to keep them light and humorous, but also to merge the ancient with the current, the highbrow with the lowbrow. Once again showing we are all the same deep down and we might as well have a laugh along the way.
I feel the most excited about spreading the message of Amrta and reminding everyone that they are solid gold.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Amrta comes from my deep love of mythology, comparative religion, and storytelling in general. I have always had the feeling that the ways that we divide ourselves into groups and hierarchies is completely false. Amrta is always some healing, mystic, drink of the gods. One particular myth I read, I believe it is an ancient Hindu myth, was that after the long battle of life had been fought, Amrta (Amritam) would fall from the sky as a drink of immortality. A sign that the battle was over. My life in so many ways has felt like a series of long battles. Deep wounds. I decided in that moment maybe it was time to no longer be identified by my wounds but in- stead, create my own Amrta, and regenerate myself. I do not have to wait for the world to rain down Amrta. I will be Amrta for myself. So, Amrta Art was born.
My work originally started as a way to heal myself and it sort of naturally built outward momentum. It is not about just creating something pretty to hang in your home (even though we all love that) is about creating a symbol or a totem for collectors.
My intention behind every Amrta Gold Piece is that anyone who hangs them in their space, looks at them and remembers their fundamental nature, which is perfect, profound, and untarnished no matter what the world put on them.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
The resource I wish I knew about sooner… I would have to say myself.
Let me clarify, not the egoic self that wants to prove or showoff to the external world, but that part of myself, that’s deeply rooted that no one can get to. That secret part that comes through me delicately, that I have to be quiet and still to hear. That’s the resource I wish I knew about sooner and I wish I trusted sooner.
Because no matter what’s going on, when I get quiet and listen, let myself experiment and play, something beautiful happens. Even if it is a beautiful mistake, I learn and expand in a way I couldn’t if I had not listened to that part of me.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The people I meet.
Through my Gold Series in particular, I feel like I am constantly learning from people and their incredible stories of resilience. It has created a connectedness that I carry with me on the hard days. As the paintings have starting selling all over the world it solidifies how incredibly connected we all are. I am always in awe of how people observe the pieces, what they see in the abstract strokes of paint, what it inspires in them. It makes the pieces feel forever alive because each person sees something different. For that, i’m forever grateful.
Contact Info:
Website: www.amrtaart.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/amrtaart
Other: www.artsy.com/amrtaart
THE MAG. GLOBALBOHO
MORE THAN A BLOG TO GIVE.
Glyph January 21, 2023 AOLAB, Culture, GB Meanwhile in America:, Globalboho Arthead Highs
[Gb Hands down] Best show seen in CA in 2022: Amrta art @shockboxxgallery, Hermosa beach.
Gold Soul – the Art of Amrta
Posted on November 11, 2022 by Diversions LA
Gold is a grand metal, long lasting, luminous, profoundly durable. It is a precious substance. It is mined and treasured, and used to create valuable jewelry and works of art. Emblematic of something even more precious, the resilience of the human spirit, artist Amrta takes an event that was a negative cataclysm in her life, and reshapes it as a tribute to her own power, her own gold. In disIntegrated at Shockboxx Gallery in Hermosa Beach, Amrta offers a moving and utterly beautiful series of work.
As artwork, the show simply dazzles. Rooted in the expression and expulsion of the darkest heart of trauma, its depth is as rich as its visual surface. Along with the individual paintings, Amrta offers a swirling, galvanizing video dance performance; evocative poetry accompanying each work; and a visceral, heart-hurting series of exhibits in the backroom that explore the traumatic event that led to the creation of this work. The expression “spinning gold from dross” has never been more true.
The work is multi-layered and complex, with the bottom, virtually unseen layer adding textures and a swirl of emotions, with the occasional brief excavatory revelation to the careful viewer. It is dark, that layer, indicative of all the stress and trauma Amrta overcame to reach the point of creating this evocative series of artworks. The final layer is the astonishing gold, each piece of art an individual, some more bronze in color, some light; some with delicate floral drawings on them; some with thick markings beneath the gold that remind the viewer of a geographic map, or emotional Braille.
If we do indeed negotiate our deepest fears, darkest emotions and situations in the midnight of our souls and hearts, then, forged by these experiences, it is our choice whether to blacken with them or become purer, more golden, like a stormy riven sky after the sunset. It is enormously clear the path Amrta has taken, and it is a glowing one.
It is also a valuable one to peruse. Treasure yourself, viewers, heart and soul, and revel in this stunningly original artistic reminder that what glitters here is indeed pure gold.
While closed in-person at Shockboxx Gallery in Hermosa Beach, the exhibition is up on Artsy and you should mine t’s lush and passionate images now.
Genie Davis ; photos Genie Davis and also provided by the gallery
Posted in ArtTagged Amrta, disIntegrated, Shockboxx GalleryLeave a comment
Friday Flow Amrta Interview by Drica Lobo
VIDEO HERE
Inspiring Conversations with Christina Elizabeth Smith of Amrta Art
LA’S MOST INSPIRING STORIES
LOCAL STORIESOCTOBER 20, 2021
Inspiring Conversations with Christina Elizabeth Smith of Amrta Art
Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Elizabeth Smith.
Hi Christina, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised outside Nashville, Tennessee. I spent most of my time running in the woods, daffodil fields and in my imagination. Reconciling the world, I saw in my heart and head verses the tangible world I saw unfolding around me was probably what first pulled me towards creative expression as a coping mechanism. I was a competitive dancer by eight, started stage acting very young and would draw and write poems as a way to process the world around me. Art and creative expression saved my life. It was never really a question to me what I would do for a living, I knew I just wanted to “make things” so my pursuits were always centered around how to communicate what was in my heart through art. I got to where I am today with my visual art, acting, and podcasting holding on to the goal of communicating the things I have deeply struggled with whether it is my rape in 2011, my struggles with depression, loneliness, or uncertainty, but by alchemizing those struggles and turning them into messages of hope. I believe humans are profoundly beautiful but that the world and society throw a lot of dirt on our concept of self. It is only through polishing the mirror of the self that we can begin to see ourselves clearly again. My work is deeply inspired by my love of the mystical aspects of life, our human interconnectedness, and my love and reverence for eastern philosophy and the occult.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
– Robert Frost
“The Road Not Taken”
Immediately I thought of the end of this Robert Frost poem. Although I am filled with gratitude, there is nothing smooth about being an artist for a living. I always say I didn’t choose it. This life chose me. I came into this world this way. The self-doubt, the doubt that you absorb from the outside world because you don’t fit into a “box” so people don’t really know what to make of you…nothing about that is smooth. It is a completely unconventional and almost rebellious way of life. It can be so scary because you don’t know where the money will come from sometimes, you don’t know how to explain that you have to create things for a living, you just do. It is a life of looking at a blank canvas and knowing that the “art” of your life will appear but you can’t see the “how” you just know the “why”. All that being said, I love it. I love creating so much and I feel such gratitude I exist in this way, that I get to know the artists I do, and that I have met a few people who have held a light up along my path.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work is a reflection and exploration of the magical interconnectedness of all of life and the ability to regenerate. As a painter, I am deeply influenced by my fifteen years of study of mythology, comparative religion, and ancient Buddhism. I decided to go by Amrta years ago when I read an ancient myth that said that when people had fought the long battle of life, Amrta (Ambrosia) would fall from the sky as “a drink of the gods”. This was a symbol that we constantly renew and are reborn in this lifetime. Amrta is a reminder that I do not have to wait for the external world to “rain down Amrta”, because it already exists in me. My goal is to constantly do the work and create art to bring the wisdom of Amrta out of my heart and share it with the world.
Amrta’s art has been exhibited in galleries on Royal Street in New Orleans, Inliquid In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Shockboxx Project in Hermosa Beach, California. Gallery 825 in West Hollywood, and many more.
Amrta is a proud to be a member of The Program with Shockboxx Project as well as The Los Angeles Artists’ Association.
Her work hangs alongside an original Salvador Dali in Los Angeles and has sold in New Orleans, Brooklyn, Texas, Williamsburg, Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and internationally as far as Romania. I have also been on the Jury for multiple Shockboxx Shows.
My current series and most known for series is my gold series. In Japanese culture gold is poured in the cracks of broken pottery “golden joinery,” Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. The idea is that when the items become broken and the gold is poured in, the item becomes more beautiful. We are the same. Through our suffering, we pour metaphorical gold into the broken parts of ourselves each time we rise up from our suffering. Therefore fortifying ourselves more and more. Amrta wants to paint everything gold as a reminder that the gold is what we have been all along. Perfect gold. Never broken, but forever breaking to get back to our purest and most perfect state. Amrta carves into these pieces modern (and sometimes crass) statements to keep them light and humorous, but also to merge the ancient with the current, the highbrow with the lowbrow. Once again showing we are all the same deep down and we might as well have a laugh along the way.
Amrta Art sells on Artsy with Shockboxx Project as well as offers private commissions.
I am dedicated to reminding all souls that no matter what they have been through, they are beautiful, hope-filled, gold.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I also have a podcast called “Go Gently- meditation and Insight for daily life” this podcast is on all podcast platforms and is based on my years of study in meditation. I hope it brings a little respite in a noisy world.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7lXx9zqGt0BQSgj2nm9Aol?si=2dZmbaG_QdSFKLglGUCg-Q&dl_branch=1
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/go-gently-meditation-and-insight-for-daily-life/id1580441193
Contact Info:
Email: amrtaart@gmail.com
Website: www.amrtaart.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/amrtaart
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amrtaart
The Living Artist Podcast Interview with Christina Elizabeth Smith (Amrta)
LINK HERE
SHOUTOUT LA:LOCAL STORIES
Meet Christina Elizabeth Smith: Artist and Creator of Amrta Art
Meet Christina Elizabeth Smith: Artist and Creator of Amrta Art
February 15, 2021
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We had the good fortune of connecting with Christina Elizabeth Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Christina Elizabeth, do you have some perspective or insight you can share with us on the question of when someone should give up versus when they should keep going?
I choose never to give up. I think especially in the last year so many of us have thought about giving up on something, a dream career, our art, love… I know for me, it has been such a time of questioning professional and personal choices and whether to continue to pursue everything I dream of, but I always come back to the same answer inside of myself that whispers “keep going”. The stories that always inspire me the most are the people who never gave up on that inner voice, even when the world was railing against them, telling them it was impossible. That is what I aim to be, someone who never gives up and maybe inspires at least one person to never give up on themselves. I also know that after all the years of being in the arts, it is what I am meant to do. I am meant to be an artist. This is how I relate to the world, how I add my story and my softness to it. Art is the best way I know how to communicate. I am constantly wanting to communicate how interconnected we all are, how much we all struggle, how much we all want love, and art is my channel. So if you ask me if you should give up, I say never. If giving up feels like putting a part of your soul on a shelf, never ever sacrifice any piece of you. Besides, you could give up and hate what you choose to do instead, so you might as well be uncomfortable doing what you love.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Amrta, my brand as a painter is a forever evolving exploration of universal themes of how we are all interconnected, all struggling on this wild ride together. The name Amrta comes from a myth I read years ago that talked about how Amrta (Ambrosia) would fall from the sky at the end of a long battle. It was a symbol of rebirth and of peace after suffering. That felt like my life, going through battles and looking up at the sky for answers. I decided to adopt Amrta as my art name, because then I could stop waiting for the Amrta to fall and just be it for myself…and maybe for other people. I want my art to bring people beauty and peace and make them feel seen and held. We live in a tumultuous world, so if I can paint something that when someone looks at it hanging in their home it helps them exhale or feel less alone, it will all be worth it. I am working on a gold series now inspired by Kintsugi. In Japanese culture gold is poured in the cracks of broken pottery “golden joinery,” Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. The idea is that when the items become broken and the gold is poured in, the item becomes more beautiful. We are the same. Through our suffering, we pour metaphorical gold into the broken parts of ourselves each time we rise up from our suffering. Therefore fortifying ourselves more and more. I want to paint everything gold as a reminder that the gold is what we have been all along. Perfect gold. Never broken, but forever breaking to get back to our purest and most perfect state. I carve into these pieces modern (and sometimes crass) statements to keep them light and humorous, but also to merge the ancient with the current, the highbrow with the lowbrow. Once again showing we are all the same deep down and we might as well have a laugh along the way.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh, I love it here, we are so lucky to have so many amazing places to explore! I like long walks and really good coffees, so I’d probably take them to Bourgeois Pig for one of their almond matcha lattes, they sneak a little chai in there so it is my absolute favorite, I usually get one on the way to the studio. I’d also take them on a long walk into Griffith Park, pop down to Hillhurst and grab a snack at Greenleaves which is vegan Thai food and I love it! Figaro is another favorite because….bread….I really like bread. Nights before the pandemic were Mini Bar or La Poubelle for wine, candlelight, and long catch up sessions.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I could shout out so many people…but major shout out to Mike Collins at Shockboxx Gallery. Not enough can be said about him and his community/ encouragement. Really, the whole Shockboxx crew. I am better because I know all of them. Also, shout out to my family and my sweet friends who feel like family. You are engraved in my heart.
Website: www.amrtaart.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/amrtaart
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amrtaart
Other: https://www.artsy.net/artist/amrta https://www.shockboxxproject.com/the-program
Image Credits
Headshot: @elevenafterphoto
Amrta Art becomes part of The Program at Shockboxx Project
AMRTA
You are one of our artists who paints under a different name. We've also heard that you moved out west from a different location. What's the story with that, or are we to assume you are on the run?
Shhhh! Don’t blow my cover.
I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee with a lot of dirt, daffodils, and restlessness. It is a military town, the hub of Ft. Campbell. Since as young as four, I knew I would move away. My father was thirty years special forces and the worry I had about losing him, and the loss we had around us, I knew I would never stay there. That and I was just one of those sensitive kids born with a lot of wonder. I spent a lot of my childhood staring out my bedroom window wondering what was out there. I was always an artist and performer. By age fourteen I was a national champion dancer. I have always needed art and expression as a way to say the things I cannot, a way to put down and express the things I cannot hold. Art saved my life, and continues to. I got three jobs to save enough money to move to California. I finally packed my car and drove out in 2007. My evolution as a painter and as Amrta came later, but it has been such an incredible and challenging part of myself to step into.
Speaking of that other name, what's the meaning behind Amrta and how does that fit into the nature of what drives your work?
Amrta comes from my deep love of mythology, comparative religion, and storytelling in general. I have always had the feeling that the ways that we divide ourselves into groups and hierarchies is completely false. Reading was always my way to feel connected to that mystic truth. Amrta or Amrita (Ambrosia), shows up everywhere in ancient Buddhist texts, in different Greek, Hindu, Hebrew mythologies. Amrta is always some healing, mystic, drink of the gods. One particular myth I read, I believe it is an ancient Hindu myth, was that after the long battle of life had been fought, Amrta (Amritam) would fall from the sky as a drink of immortality. A sign that the battle was over. I remember reading this myth late at night in a book by Joseph Campbell and I put the book down for a long time and was emotional. My life in so many ways has felt like a series of long battles. Deep wounds. I decided in that moment maybe it was time to no longer be identified by my wounds but instead, create my own Amrta, and regenerate myself. I do not have to wait for the world to rain down Amrta. I will be Amrta for myself. So, Amrta Art was born.
All that being said, my work is a forever evolving exploration of universal themes of how we are all interconnected, all struggling on this wild ride together. I also add a bit of irreverence into my work, because my biggest goal is to make people feel freer, so by mixing the highbrow with the lowbrow, it is more representative of me, and hopefully, of all of us.
You have a creative background with other forms of expressing yourself. Has painting always been around for you, or is this new?
Yes. I am so lucky to be working in the arts in so many ways. Painting has always been one of the most secret parts of me. It is definitely one of my newer artistic endeavors. I love how much it challenges me, pushes me to my edges of seeing and understanding, and I love that it satisfies that quiet part of me that needs to be in a room alone listening to music just moving my body.
You showed up at ShockBoxx in a way that just said, "I'm here now." We are guessing there is more to that story and this is part of your way of being. If so, where does that come from?
I love that that is how I came across! Shockboxx has been one of those gifts I cannot say enough about. I challenged myself a year or so ago to be more active on Instagram with my art and Shockboxx came up through another gallery. Something drew me to the Shockboxx page and I was immediately very impressed. It was this great sigh of relief. Mike was interested and interactive with me and with other artists and it was genuine. It energetically felt so aligned with what I want to do with art and for artistic communities. If the people and artists aren’t seen, we won’t get genuine art, and that is what the world needs more than ever.
As far as that being part of the way I am, I think that the positive energy of Shockboxx nurtured and brought that out of me in the best possible way.
You are an emerging artist at an emerging gallery. Any tips for new artists wanting to break into a new level?
One foot so gratefully in front of the other. It is such an amazing and brave thing to pursue art on a professional level, so congrats! As far as what I have learned, surround yourself with people who are better than you and try new and interesting and weird things. Don’t be too precious about your pieces. You may make pieces that you will cover up over and over and that process is incredible and it is the process not the outcome. If you have to turn your paintings around because you can’t look at them in the process, do that, DON’T sit there and beat yourself up. There is something you got out of that session of work. Trust that. Ask questions, get critiques, support other artists. Build a community, it will keep you going. You are needed and necessary and there is a place for you. We forget sometimes how powerful artists are. Tap into that and hold onto it for the hard days.
Also, go on long walks away from all of it to hear yourself.
A quote I love:
“The institutions of human society treat us as parts of a machine. They assign us ranks and place considerable pressure upon us to fulfill defined roles. We need something to help us restore our lost and distorted humanity. Each of us has feelings that have been suppressed and have built up inside. There is a voiceless cry resting in the depths of our souls, waiting for expression. Art gives the soul's feelings voice and form.” -Diasaku Ikeda
Link to other artist in The Program