In the surreal garden – This year’s Art Melt winner talks about his honored work

Michael Elliott-Smith and his wife Leslie often go out on photography field trips together. They may come back with images of the same places, but their final, surrealist pieces always end up different.

“Sometimes I wonder why she took a photo of one thing instead of another, but then she ends up winning something with it,” Michael jokes.

It was Michael who won last weekend, taking first place in the 10th annual Art Melt at the Capitol Park Museum downtown. His piece, “The Botanical Gardens,” featured a woman with an umbrella walking through a strange, vaguely Japanese-style garden with a canopy of oak trees above and a vintage car in the distance.

He says he was shocked he won, after hearing how many pieces were submitted (more than 600) and seeing the finalists chosen for the exhibition (just shy of 70 pieces). It was his third time participating in Art Melt and his first time winning an award at the event. Interestingly, his winning piece contains images of the oak trees that surround the Capitol Park Museum, so perhaps it was destiny.

“I was mulling over it in my head, this idea of some type of garden and a person walking through it,” he explains about his process. “I’ll put these things away for days or even weeks before looking at them again. Then it starts to come together.”

The former soil scientist for the U.S. Forest Service was first introduced to cameras decades ago as a way to document his research in the field. “They handed a camera to me and I didn’t even know how to load it,” he says. He soon took up photography as a personal hobby as well, shooting landscapes and learning about the craft.

His wife, Leslie, has a master’s degree in art and also works in surrealism. Leslie suggested he submit some of his work to juried exhibitions and in 1984, he was featured in his first juried show.

When digital photography started to replace film, he was amazed with the possibilities and methods he could use to manipulate an image. He started studying the photography work of surrealist Jerry Uelsmann and began developing his own style, always rooted in the Louisiana and Mississippi landscapes he grew up around.

Currently living in Alexandria, some of Michael’s work is on view at the Alexandria Museum of Art until Aug. 24, as part of a summer show at River Oaks Square Art Center in Alexandria until Aug. 17, in a national juried exhibition at the St. Tammany Art Association in Covington until Aug. 10, and in the Art Melt exhibition until Aug. 31.

He and Leslie are planning a joint exhibit at the Historic City Hall Arts and Cultural Center in Lake Charles next year. Check out more of Michael Elliott-Smith’s work here.

Photo above was taken Saturday at Art Melt, showing Michael Elliott-Smith with his winning image. Photo by Wil Norwood