Smartfish Studio & Sustainable Supply

As you may or … well, may know, I love Over-​the-​Rhine and I’m a big proponent for making it as great and fun and community-​filled as possible. And it gives me a bunch of warm fuzzies when I see others doing the same.
Smartfish is a new art supply store on Main Street. This is their mission statement: «To provide sustainable materials and tools as preferred alternatives to traditional supplies, and to educate students and working designers/​artists, while fostering community and creativity.»
Love it, love all of it. The owner wished she had a store like this while being a student at DAAP, and when none ever came, she opened it herself. It’s also the home base for her Smart Footwear line, which are in house, totally originally created shoes. Who doesn’t love funky shoes?
The store is very bare, with soft white walls and stuff on modern-​looking shelves. It’s very calming to just walk through the doors and check it out. Plus, their website is
, which makes me laugh.
It can be pricey (but all art supplies are) and, obviously, it’s not for me (with the height of my artistic talent being able to look at something pretty that someone else created and going, «Yes, I like that.»)
Still, the need is clearly there and I loved that someone stepped up to fill it while also improving the neighborhood and really committing to a sense of community. Fantastic.
I hope this inspires more people to create new stores to fill a need and improve OtR. Anyone really wishing there was a movie theatre downtown? Yes? No? Anyone?