This Utahn said she is the ‘least likely’ to become an artist. Now she has an exhibit downtown.

When Jessica Smith was 5, in a fill-in-the-blank Dr. Seuss book, she scrawled her dream job in red crayon: artist.

And yet, Smith believes she is the “least likely” person to become an artist.

“I had no reason to believe that I could do this. I was just so poor. I was a single mom of five kids. You could imagine how much downtime you have under those circumstances,” Smith explains.

She spent 35 years of her life not painting and has no formal training.

It’s almost a fluke, then, that her first painting — a depiction of her favorite author — caught the attention of a family member of that muse.

That was the canvas that started it all.

Now, Smith has an exhibit — “35 Years of Not Painting” — at Salt Lake City’s Main Library downtown.

From 0 paintings to 200

Smith’s oldest son has autism, and because specialized books for children with autism were expensive, Smith illustrated books and posters for him.

“I’ve always liked expressing myself through art,” the enrolled Cherokee Nation citizen said. “I draw a lot of handmade cards. I made my kids their own books to read when they were younger.”

But she insists, “I never, ever thought of myself as an artist.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, Smith thought, why not set aside a day to revisit the joy she felt at five years old?

She told herself, “I’m going to get one canvas and one cheap set of acrylic paint. I didn’t even get an easel. I just painted my first picture at the dining table.”

The portrait of novelist and poet Richard Brautigan was seen by his daughter, who complimented the artwork on Instagram.

It encouraged Smith to keep painting. Next, she painted American singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. She posted it in a Facebook group of his fans, and someone there wanted to buy it. He mailed her a check and she mailed back the canvas.

“I was like, ‘Maybe there’s something to this.’ So I just kept painting,” she said.

Smith will pull up a picture of the person she’s painting as a guide on her computer, then set up her easel next to it. From there, she said it’s a lot of trial and error. Her paintings are full of bold brushstrokes and bright colors.

Often, she’s asked if she’s interested in formal training, but Smith said she’s not sure she ever will.

“I feel like there’s a very straight thoroughfare from my heart to my hands to the canvas and it’s a very primitive method of communication, but it is uniquely mine, and I’m concerned that if I learned what these brushes actually do, that my voice would change,” she explains.

Smith has now painted around 200 portraits, with three-quarters of them purchased for private collections. She’s rendered Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton, Elliott Smith, Pedro Pascal and more.

Closing the circle

For her exhibit at the library, Smith has created four new portraits. Two of them are very near and dear to her — one of rapper Tupac Shakur and another of TV personality Mr. Fred Rogers.

“Way back when I was a single parent living in poverty, and I had three of the kids, we lived in a trailer. There was just never enough money, and it was really, really hard,” Smith said.

Many nights, Smith lay awake, troubled by thoughts of whether she was doing enough for her kids. She didn’t want to fail anyone.

“When I couldn’t sleep, I would bring up Tupac,” Smith said. Shakur’s 1993 track “Keep Ya Head Up” became a comfort song for her.

Mr. Rogers provided similar solace, especially during the last episode of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” When Rogers told viewers that he liked them just the way they were, it made Smith cry, and then she would go to sleep.

For Smith, painting these figures is a way to close the artistic circle: to give back to them in the way they gave to her.

“I’m just channeling the love I have for them or for their work as I am creating it,” Smith said.

Smith’s show will be located in the Lower Urban Gallery at the library through June 21 and will feature 20-30 portraits.

She wants people to know that if she was able to fulfill her dream decades later, with no money, no time, and high stress levels, anyone can do it.

“What I hope is that people will see this show and not be like, ‘Oh, cool painting.’ I hope that they’ll be like, ‘What did I love when I was 5, and could I set aside a day to revisit that?” Smith said. “Could I make 5-year-old me happy for a day? What does that produce? How can I put that out into the world to give that feeling to other people too?”