wife yells at him for being lazy . So he fi nally gets a fi re in his belly about fi nishing stuff because unfi nished work makes him feel miserable , and completing work is so satisfying . In his work , there ’ s a level of cohesion that he knows people have noticed , and wasn ’ t necessarily intentional , but is all tied to his personality , and most of the pieces express certain “ adult ” issues that he ’ s struggled to decipher .
I inquired about what inspires him regularly . He said he ’ s cut back from using social media and has been looking locally , mostly . “ It ’ s where I live . I should fi nd inspiration from these people .” I asked if anything stood out as a major turning point for him .
“ Back in ’ 04 , ’ 05 , when we had the hurricanes come through , we were out of power , and everybody had their windows boarded up .” He would collect those leftover boards . “ This was one of a few things that I really felt was going to directionally affect what I was doing .” He would go around to people ’ s houses and fi nd that they were discarding wood he could use . “ It was stained and ugly , weathered . There was just something awesome when you looked at that .” White doesn ’ t paint on canvas . Up until that point , he had . With those endless supplies , and being out of power for two weeks , he made painting after painting by fl ashlight or candlelight . “ Every time I would throw a piece of wood in my truck , I would see something in it . It was like it was halfway fi nished already !” Everything he did after that was on hurricane wood . It was something that people who lived here could relate to .
I asked him which parts of himself are most refl ected in his work . I thought about when we met at Ethos and he mentioned that there was a fi gure he used again that he had imagined as a child . “ I think that I connect a lot of happiness to that stuff . Not losing that is important . It takes you back to that point in your life when you don ’ t give a shit about things that aren ’ t important to you .” Scott sees that keeping those things around is important in life ; to never grow up , and never give in . He told me that he hadn ’ t really thought about that before , and I was glad to have helped him realize something about his work
As usual , I fi nished our interview with the question , “ What ’ s your mantra ? “ You can only control what you can control .”
You can see more at : RiseAboveTattoo . com
@ largeteeth above , Home is a Dark Hole , acrylic , collage , pencil , and spray paint on wood below , Everyone Feels this Way Once : Escape , acrylic , spray paint , marker and oil pastel on wood
Orlando Arts & Culture , v . 2.6
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