Study for Faith, 2006 Oil on NYC Metrocard by Stacy Stewart Smith
Study for Faith, 2006 Oil on NYC Metrocard by Stacy Stewart Smith
Description
Before Faith could exist at 50" × 34", it had to exist at 2.125" × 3.375".
This oil study — painted on a New York City MTA MetroCard — is where the Resurrection series began to take shape. In the spring of 2006, working in his Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn studio, Smith used the humble surface of a transit card to work through the composition that would become Faith, the first completed painting of the series. Everything that would later unfold across a large canvas was first held in the palm of a hand.
The image traces back to a rain-soaked afternoon in Paris, 2005. The Eiffel Tower had closed due to flooding — streets near the landmark submerged, cars drifting — and Smith waited, then returned on instinct. His hunch was rewarded: the tower reopened, and he was among the first in line. From the moving elevator, he photographed the structure through rain-streaked glass, the iron lattice blurring and burning in the distant sun. That quality of movement, of beauty glimpsed through obstruction, became the visual language of the entire Resurrection series.
This study is the first mark of that vision — intimate, immediate, irreplaceable.
Exhibited at the Stacy Stewart Smith Gallery circa 2009 and featured on the Eric Adams Show that same year, it is a rare artifact: the seed of a body of work, small enough to hold, large enough to contain a calling.
Acquisition
- Medium: Oil on NYC MTA MetroCard
- Dimensions: 2.125" × 3.375" (5.4 cm × 8.6 cm)
- Year: 2006
- Exhibited: Stacy Stewart Smith Gallery, Brooklyn, circa 2009
- Featured: Eric Adams Show, 2009
- Condition: Excellent
- Provenance: Artist’s collection, New York City
- Ships from New York City; white-glove shipping available upon request
Care
Stacy Stewart Smith offers made-to-order garments, fine art, and digital publications — each requiring different care. Please refer to the product description for care and handling instructions specific to your purchase. For garments: dry clean or spot clean unless otherwise noted; do not machine wash. For fine art: keep away from direct sunlight and humidity; handle with clean, dry hands or cotton gloves. For digital products and publications: no physical care required; download and archive your files upon receipt.
Design
Every Stacy Stewart Smith piece begins as a drawing and ends as a decision — a deliberate choice of textile, construction method, and proportion made by a single designer with five decades of practice. The same eye that composes a painting composes a coat: line, weight, negative space, and the relationship between form and the body that inhabits it. Garments are produced in New York City, one at a time, to the measurements and preferences of the individual client. No two pieces are identical. No production run exists. This is not manufacturing — it is making.
The atelier sources textiles for their hand, weight, and longevity. Sustainability here is not a campaign. It is the natural consequence of making only what is wanted, from materials chosen to last, by a craftsman who will not put his name on anything less.