Patrick Smith (artist)

Patrick Smith
Smith in Singapore 2013
Born	(1972-02-18) February 18, 1972 (age 45) San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	University of Massachusetts
Known for	Animation
Notable work	Daria, Masks, Puppet, Drink.
Patron(s)	MTV, PBS Digital Studios

Pat Smith (born 1972 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an installation artist, animator and filmmaker. Smith studied at University of Massachusetts Amherst and has since then been working as an animator in Los Angeles and 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 MTV. 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. I re-animated the same thing, a bit tighter. The spot won a BDA award (Broadcast Design Association) and a Jury Prize at the 1995 Holland Animation Festival. After I finished the ID, MTV offered me a job on Beavis and Butthead, which was my first ever studio job, and which brought me to New York City.

His directorial debut was for the Emmy-nominated series Down-Town, continuing on to direct the popular animated series Daria. Since then he has directed a handful of short films which earned him much reputation at film festivals worldwide as well as numerous awards. Currently, Smith and his studio are producing the third season of the PBS digital studios series "Blank on Blank" an innovative animated show that visually illustrates rare audio interviews of famous artists, actors and musicians. His formative years were spent as a storyboard artist for Walt Disney, and other major studios in New York and Los Angeles. During the past decade, he has animated, directed and produced six award winning short films as well as many iconic television commercials, namely, Zoloft, Visa, and AOL. Smith spent five years in Singapore as a professor at the graduate film program for New York University, under artistic director Oliver Stone. Patrick is a fellow of the New York Foundation of the Arts and a curator for multiple international film and animation festivals. He lives and works in Montauk New York with his wife, Kaori Ishida.