Credit: Laura GlassChad Smith is converting his drum sticks into paintbrushes. Well, not literally, but close.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer has launched The Art of Chad Smith, an art exhibition open now in Austin, Texas. As Smith explains to ABC Audio, the pieces are all based on photographs taken of him while he’s playing drums, and then “manipulated” in post-production.
“It’s texture, and it’s color and light and everything that is cool, to me, about what I like to see in more abstract art,” Smith says. “And that is what I’d call this.”
He adds, “I tried to come up with interesting ways that would challenge people to think, ‘What is that? That’s a guy playing the drums, really?'”
The Art of Chad Smith is open at Austin’s Russell Collection Fine Art gallery now through Sunday, January 12. The exhibit also will be on tour throughout 2020, including stops in Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, New York City and Nashville. Smith will be making appearances at the galleries on the weekends, in between being busy with his “day job” in the Chili Peppers.
“We’ll see what happens,” Smith says of the exhibits. “It might be like Spinal Tap, there might be, like, three people there and I’ll just be sitting by myself…I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I’m looking forward to it!”
Speaking about his goals for the project, Smith says he simply hopes to “have fun, and do something different and challenge myself and grow.”
“I’m sure there will be some snobby art people who will be, like, ‘Oh, it’s just a vanity thing for some rock drummer guy,'” Smith says. “That’s fine, I don’t care, I don’t worry about any of that sort of thing. But, you know, I like it.”
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