TJ Smith: Giving Back To The Environment Through Art

In recent years, the Grand Valley, and Grand Junction in particular, has consistently grown as a hub of outdoor recreation. A mecca for enthusiasts who travel here from around the world to access the elaborate trail, mountain and water systems for sport or solace. Surrounded by the Colorado National Monument, Book Cliffs, Grand Mesa and the Colorado River, GJ is in a bit of a vortex. It’s not uncommon to sit at a local bar after an epic hike and meet someone who adventured here and unsuspectingly became so enamored by the beauty and unparalleled access to nature, they stayed. There is a vibrance in the lands here — a blanket of poetic exaltations in color and form which captivate and inspire a life of activity and creation. This is interpreted in no better way than through the nature-led, multidisciplinary work of local artist TJ Smith. If you’ve walked pretty much anywhere in downtown GJ or ventured into REI to pick up adventure-sesh necessities, you’ve seen his work on murals or on National Park merch. Bold and playful, he captures the region, as he explains, “through a lens of geometric illustration styles and naturalist observations.” Very simply, he makes really cool art highlighting our really cool lands.

Artist TJ Smith and the “Welcome to Grand Junction” mural in Downtown Grand Junction that he painted.

An advocate for art and nature, Smith melds his passion for both by utilizing his medium to paint narratives about the positive impact of the natural environment, without forsaking his opportunity to equally reflect its fragility. In October 2023, he was chosen to participate in The Colorado Art Science Environment (CASE) Fellowship program. As the artist in an artist/ scientist partnership, he created several paint and foil artworks reflective of the climate issue of drought and its effects on our river systems and ultimately our daily lives. The work was on display in the Colorado State Capitol and continues to travel throughout Colorado in various exhibition locations.

Through his design studio, Stray Wild, Smith focuses on creating nature-inspired work for outdoor brands and nonprofits, curating collections and exhibits which promote respect for and education about our lands. From his National Park merchandise designs to his poster initiatives aimed to protect endangered resources, he draws attention to critical issues by engaging visual senses with bright and contemporary depictions. Although not rooted in dissent and undergirded by phenomenology, his work may prompt you to consider if Shepard Fairey is an artist he admires. He certainly inhabits a similar design ability to invoke curiosity while creatively evangelizing an appreciation of our environment and pointedly or subliminally inspiring call to action responses. Without being overtly political, he is an artist/activist whose passion for his community and the environment is clearly at the heart of his work.

His most recent endeavor was to partner with two Western Slope creatives in the development of an initiative to support rural outdoor brands. Along with Robin Hall, cofounder of Town Hall Outdoor Company and Kelly Mazanti, co-founder and CEO of Buttnski outdoor apparel brand, they teamed up after speaking on a panel together about how rural brands operate in remote communities. The idea behind the movement is to provide such brands with a platform to collaborate and share resources and ideas about maintaining and expanding outdoor focused rural operations. Most beneficially, the platform serves as a directory for consumers to directly reach local, outdoor-oriented service and product providers. Still in the development stages with plans to expand nationally, ruralisrad.org currently showcases about 20 outdoor brands.

National Park merchandise available at REI.

Smith is an active member of the art community, serving on the core planning committee for the upcoming Space to Create — a shared artist working and living space — and is a board member of Grand Junction Creates, an affiliate of the state recognized Grand Junction Creative District. He has been commissioned for and painted over 10 murals in public and private spaces throughout the Valley and has held exhibitions and displays of his work in galleries, libraries and local businesses in several Colorado locations. You can view his art on his personal website, tjsmith.art and explore his studio works and products on straywild. com. He has national park inspired designs on merchandise available at REI locations in Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs and he currently has an interactive art installation at the new Clifton Library, which narrates the journey of the Colorado River through visual landscapes, sound and light displays.

Smith is tangibly connected to the Valley through his mural designs which capture the beauty, history and culture which surround us, through his contributions to the community via his advocacy and education about the resources we relish in and often take for granted, and through the further development of a immersive creative scene where art is not a separate aspect, but rather an intricate piece of life woven into our environment, amplifying the vibrancy which draws folks in and occasionally beckons them to stay.

Originally published in the Fall 2024 issue of Spoke+Blossom.