Collaborators

COMMON BOX PROJECT

Dolph Smith has never lived more than an hour’s drive from where he was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His home/studio of thirty years in midtown and the Memphis College of Art where he taught for thirty years were only ten minutes from where he was born. Until he moved with wife Jessie to a new home/studio 50 miles away in the countryside, he had not come very far in life.

At Memphis College of Art he taught Painting, Drawing in early years, and, in the late 70s, developed a Hand Papermaking and Book Arts program called "The Flying Vat." Dolph retired in 1995 and was elected Professor Emeritus. In 2004 awarded Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Memphis College of Art. Dolph's art works ranged over the years from watercolors and drawings into years of paperworks and sculpture and he's now involved with creating one of a kind handmade books. He has over 1,200 works in collections nationally including Japan and China and has been featured in Surface Design Journal, Hand Papermaking, The Complete Printmaker and was profiled with nine other American bookmakers in The Penland Book of Handmade Books.

Dolph travels nationally to teach including: Penland School, Arrowmont, Haystack, Oregon School of Arts and Craft, Appalachian Center, and Forum in Australia. Often a juror and lecturer, he is now working from a studio called Tennarkippi Field on Hurricane Hill in Western Tennessee.

Quote: If we knew what we were going to make, it just wouldn’t be a creative act, would it?