Patrick Smith

Who is Patrick Smith?

Patrick Smith is an installation artist, animator and filmmaker now based in Tribeca, New York City.

Smith studied at University of Massachusetts Amherst and has since then been working as an independent animator in New York City. The beginning of his animation career has been told by himself like this:

In 1994, I was in college, and one night decided to animate something strange. I didn't know how to draw, let alone animate, so I just did something abstract. A friend of mine told me I should put an logo on it and send it to them. So I mailed a VHS of it to "MTV Networks" the address I got from the phone book. About two weeks later I got a call from a guy named Abbey, who said that they wanted to buy it. I remember the day he called, because it was the same day that I got my rejection letter from Cal Arts. The budget was $8k. I re-animated the same thing, a bit tighter, and I had to re-do the logo and sound. The spot won a BDA award and a Jury Prize at the 1995 Holland Animation Festival. After I finished the ID, MTV offered me a job in layout on Beavis and Butthead, which was my first ever studio job, and which brought me to New York City. Those were the days.