The work in the Guardian Series explores memory as well as the ambiguity of nostalgia. Girl by the Sea and Guardians Series are both inspired by the discovery of a photograph of the artist taken by her mother when the family was in Étretat, France in 1959. Girl by the Sea initially riffs on this one image in dozens of smaller sketches, later developed into “memory flags.” The larger Guardians Series eliminates the peripheral details of the memorialized Étretat photograph and brings the ever-changing girl holding the bird front and center. Working through the losses and grievances inherent in a personal history – especially the sudden loss of a mother – Smolen experiences a cathartic release in the creation of this new body of work.
In 2022, new additiions to the Series were added which included the motif of flukes and/or whales.
 

I painted these after we moved to Beacon. I had a studio in what was then affectionately known as "Bulldog Studios" which was the old high school. I was there for two years and accomplished alot of work during that time because of an almost daily practice. Here is a small selection.

This is where I began as a painter in the mid-nineties when I moved to the Southern Tier in New York State surrounded by dense woodlands, stone walls, abandoned apple orchards and a diversity of wildlife. ...I had found my utopia.