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Kaila Rose Farrell-Smith

kaila

From Europe To Klamath

BFA Alumnae

PNCA senior Kaila Rose Farrell-Smith, like other students in the class of 2004, is hard at work on her thesis installation. When the Portland art community gathers for the annual thesis show, they’ll step into Kaila’s painted vision of Cortona, Italy, where she spent much of 2003.

“I was in a show with eleven people in a fortress — a Medici fortress,” she enthuses. “When I was working there, a lot of my imagery changed. Right when I got there, they were finishing up filming Under a Tuscan Sun… I’m working with this idea of an adopted home. I mean, this isn’t my town, I’m not Italian, but I fell in love with it.”

Kaila draws from multiple cultures in much of her work. “My dad is full-blooded Klamath,” she explains. “He was part of the AIM (American Indian Movement)... it was this urban inter-tribal Indian community. We did lots of pow-wows, sweat lodges, and ceremonies.”

kaila art 1 Torso gesture

On the other hand, Oregon-born Kaila lived in Germany for three years as a teenager, and has studied in Greece and Italy. “I have this split. I have two different places where I’m getting images from — I don’t know where it will end up. What my dad has done with his life has really affected me.”

This influence shows in Kaila’s animal spirit monoprints, brightly colored pieces created from memory and drawn from tribal myths. “I had a show in the BFA Feldman Gallery. It went really well, and I met a lot of people who were very interested in [my monoprints]. I’ve sold a lot of them.”

Her work is shown in the Etruscan Museum in Cortona, Dorothy Lemelson Foundation Center in Portland, and in private collections including that of the Portland Art Museum. “You have to put yourself out there, and you have to present yourself professionally,” she says of her early success. “I’ve met a lot of people showing here, and also through the holiday art sale at the college.”

kaila art 2 Following Through Archway

After the thesis show comes graduation. What next? Kaila wants to travel, and she’s applying to the Tamarind Institute for printmaking. As much as she explores different cultures, it seems she also explores different media. A painting major now, she entered college as a graphic design major. “PNCA is one of those things where you open one door and it leads to 30 other doors. Then you’re like a kid in a candy store.”