The Verve: Mother, daughter share creative expression

The creative spirit resides in most of us, whatever the medium or final product might be.

On one level, Monica Smith is a storyteller, opening children’s imaginations through her job as a children’s librarian at the South Hill library. Her mother, Judy Doyle has also worked with children in Spokane Public Schools. Now retired, she focuses more of her time on painting while Smith snaps photos. Their creative spirits are alive and well.

“We’re not professional by any means,” said Smith, but while their résumés lack years of study and gallery exhibits, it’s made up for in passion. Smith has a master’s degree in library science and a bachelor’s in American literature.

Her expressions expose themselves via photographs. She takes her camera wherever she goes, capturing what she calls the “other side of things.” “The world isn’t always pretty and I am drawn to photography that captures the details of life,” she said.

Smith’s piece called “Serendipity” shows a plant where the light hits it just right so it looks like it’s been caught in the act of growing. “Tilt a Whirl” shows riders caught in movement, and the dead head of a plant shows the passing of life against a crisp blue sky. Her favorite photograph is of her grandmother on the day she buried her husband. It is black and white, full of sorrow and survival.

Smith is inspired by and appreciates her mother’s talent. “I have always admired her talent and have always loved her paintings. I tried to pursue drawing and painting but didn’t really get into it. I was too impatient for it. I wanted to be able to express myself immediately without having to learn the craft of painting or drawing,” she said. Smith also spins and dyes yarn and knits.

While Smith’s studio is her camera and a computer in her South Hill home, Doyle paints in a converted bedroom in her North Side home where her own paintings, as well as Smith’s photographs, decorate the walls.

Beyond her degree in education, Doyle has studied at Spokane Falls Community College, first in oil then watercolor. Her paintings are renditions of Smith’s photographs and ones she took herself. They include ducks at Cannon Hill Park, a fisherman enjoying his solitude while joggers pass behind him, and a man standing apart from a crowd of diners at a fish house.

“I love painting and my goal is to share the beauty that I see around me, by creating a piece that will captivate a mood, tell a story, and give pleasure to whoever sees it,” she said.

Both artists enjoy sharing their love for the world around them, capturing the beauty they see in their own ways, and telling stories. Doyle has shown at Raw Space and the Brooklyn Deli. Smith has never shown her work. In January they will be showing their work together at On Sacred Grounds in Valleyford. The show is called “Celebrating Spokane with a lens and a Paintbrush” and will be an exhibit of their creative spirits.