ABOUT US

The concept for Art Alchemy began in 2006 when Colin Smallwood returned to his hometown of Frederick Maryland after five years of intense art and life philosophy studies at Zendik Farm. He was eager to create an art legacy that was much grander than just himself as an artist, an idea that would live on for generations. He wanted to develop an ever-evolving idea about art that is focused on positive collaboration between the arts for a better future. Colin would always bounce these ideas off his good friend from way back, Tom Kemp (aka Cheezer) who is a professional artist. Together, they began working on their first big idea in a makeshift studio in Colin's parents basement. It was a painting called The Crucible depicting humanities downward spiral into self destruction, moving into an upward shift toward infinite possibilities as a result of humanity working together toward positive goals.

Once The Crucible was complete, Tom and Colin realized that just this one painting wasn't enough to convey the entire message. Colin was reading "The Reflexive Universe" by Arthur M. Young at the time and used Arthur's theories on the laws of the universe to create a template for the layout for an entire painting series expanding on the ideas presented in The Crucible. In Arthur's book, he illustrates the laws of the entire known universe, from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the the vastness of outer space through a series of descending and ascending "V" shaped charts. Therefore, they decided to make a series of seven paintings composed in a "V" shape, with a focus on the evolution of human consciousness.

Now that Colin and Tom had their big idea all planned out, they rented studio space at a downtown art gallery in Frederick Maryland called The Blue Elephant. They spent the next two years working on The Evolution of Human Consciousness at the Blue Elephant and along the way also began to develop the idea for Art Alchemy. They realized that not only had they been collaborating with each other to create the paintings, but they also worked with models, musicians, photographers, writers, and many other creative people to complete their grand idea for a painting series. They wanted a theme to visually represent this collaboration and thought that the philosophy behind alchemy was the way to go. The best known goals of alchemists was the transmutation of a variety of elements into gold. Therefore, the goal of art alchemy is the transmutation of various artists work into spiritual and artistic gold. Also, Tom and Colin thought it would be really cool to design their own transmutation circles, which are just geometric patterns and symbols that can be used as icons for their works.

While developing this web site, Colin and Tom began collecting and organizing web links from all those who helped with their projects, and web sites where they have helped with other people's projects. They are always on the lookout for good creative people to link to. It is an easy way to for everybody to collaborate together on their artistic goals. Please check out the member links page to see everybody who's currently involved, and please contact either Tom or Colin if you would like to link to us.

Left: Tom Kemp a.k.a. Cheezer (Left) and Colin Smallwood a.k.a. Coz (Right) hard at work at the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Maryland. They were contracted by Flying Dog to paint 9ft logo murals based off of Ralph Steadman beer label art in their conference room. Behind them is the Snake Dog IPA logo.

Below: Colin and Tom in front of their painting, The Sacrifice from their Evolution of Human Consciousness series.