Gretchen Smith, Unique Artist and Missionary

For 20 years Artist and Missionary Gretchen Smith has been involved in community development and transformation projects in Africa, the Middle East, Central America, the US and Baja Mexico where she recently started a project called ARThouse Rosarito where she hosts critical thinkers and does outreach through garden and art projects.

As Smith states, “Basically my job is to piss people off and I am very very good at it”. She fondly refers to herself as the “worst missionary ever.” Smith speaks at international conferences, blogs and publishes articles in which she is extremely critical of existing systems within the church and social change agencies . . ."

New York Critic Ed Rubin states this about Smith’s work: “I first met Gretchen at the 2007 Florence Biennale where I was both Master of Ceremonies and the Biennale liaison between management and 850 international exhibiting artists. During one of our many conversations I asked to see Gretchen’s portfolio. I was both pleased and amazed -- especially given that Smith is virtually self-taught -- to find work that was both inventive and accomplished. What surprised me most was that her original voice spoke to today. Gretchen is a very well-rounded visual artist and business woman with a rare depth of focus as well as the talent and discipline necessary to continue to be successful not only in the USA but also internationally.”

Visit Gretchen at: https://www.facebook.com/tallartist/ and for views and descriptions of the artistic photos in the slideshow, go to: http://tinyurl.com/