Chroma Zone Mural Artist 2021

Focus Smith

Self-taught artist Derek “Focus” Smith draws imagery from the Black Hills of South Dakota and from his Indigenous heritage.

“Yá’át’ééh. From my father’s family I am Dine’(Navajo). From my mother’s – Hunkpapa(Standing Rock) Lakota. Growing up in graffiti culture in metropolitan areas, a passion was ignited in my soul to create in the public arena. Coming to South Dakota I found my roots and strength in Lakota Culture. Since the early 2000’s I have been involved in the culturing of Rapid City’s Art Alley being one its originating members, I have also been actively combining graffiti and Lakota culture to create classes, murals locally and internationally, programs that center on identity through culture, instilling confidence through knowledge of self, growth through personal discovery, as well as developing community building skills. Gifting back with each moment in the tools that were gifted me during my own personal phases of restructuring in my recovery, through surviving traumas as well as working with and through the long-standing effects of these traumas, and working on building a community around the strengths we all have inherently in our souls. Emphasizing that with each hand we offer back helps us move forward, as individuals in our network of communities.” – Focus Smith

About his BANG IT! mural:

In this mural, Focus draws from Lakota Mythology and the story of Ikto’mi (Ik-to-mi), a spider-trickster spirit who does things backwards or with heyoka (backwards) energy in life. His clownish ways cause people to laugh, but his more serious misbehaviors are a cautionary tale about the dangers of the world.

Iktomi (spider) and the Coyote (also pictured) teach lessons in resilience through their trickster ways. In most stories, Iktomi comes out on top because he is wise, cunning and sly. But sometimes because of this, the Coyote comes out on top.

In a profile titled “Voices: Focus Smith” by Sarah CR Clark in Park Bugle newspaper on 6.20.21, the artist offers this additional insight:

Q: Can you tell me about the piece you created for the Bang It! mural event?

A: “The Lakota people have had different societies for a long time, made of individuals who show a specific strength. Each society would work within the community to figure out problems. That mural I painted for Bang It! is to pay tribute to the Lakota societies I find myself more in frequency with.”

Q: What messages do you hope the art you’re making today [a private commission Focus was working on in the Como Park neighborhood] will convey?

A: “The way this world is now, well . . . there was another world that existed. It was all very simple and tied in with the whole idea of honoring and respecting the land. The land is where we got our first teaching from—and it showed us how to learn, grow and share with one another.

The way the world is now (it) is all very convoluted and that’s not OK.

Anytime people look at the mural, it points back to the land. It points back to what’s already here: The stars in the sky, the cycles of the moon, the water that’s here. Those things are all a lot easier for people to accept than me saying indigenous people were here first, because for some reason that trips people up. I watch that happen time after time. I can feel it.

Pointing back to the land offers people a narrative. I’ve learned that people don’t have anything to fight back about against the land.”

Connect
ThriveUnltd • @Focicurrent