Writings: David Settino Scott

Artist's Statement

My work usually begins with some archetype. Perhaps some image that I have seen in a museum or in a book which attracts me. Any content to be found reveals itself to me as I work with the formal problems. In some of my early works, the content is narrative in form, such works are as story telling. In other works such as the flower paintings, the content is likely to be more subtle. Sometimes the content is related to social issues. Such issues as human rights abuses, the slave trade and the Buddhist immolations have been explored in my work. Although, social issues are a powerful incentive to work, it does not happen very often that I wish to make work of that nature. I would rather concentrate on the beautiful..

For me the simple archetypal image is the most powerful. Archetypes are very familiar and very accessible. They resonate within our subconscious because of that familiarity. We are at home and feel comfortable with familiar objects and images, and we are ready to receive whatever message they might enclose.

I like to make a succinct and universal image. An image that will be at home in any century or cultural milieu and carry the message with perfect clarity and respect for what it is worth.

Art is merely a language.

And it is a perfect and sublime language like music.

It is a language that transcends speech and the written word....

One does not need to speak Japanese to understand Hokusai

or to speak French to see what Monet perceived

or understand German to appreciate Mozart.

David Settino Scott
November 2009

Biography

We are talking about a high school drop out, a disenchanted teenager who left home, and went to Œboot camp‚ a week after his seventeenth birthday.. Someone who only began to seriously consider a career or vocation as an artist, when he began to draw ŒVargas style pinups‚ while serving in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. He took his first art class at the Ochletree Art Center in Norfolk VA. while serving aboard the U.S.S. Ranger.. After discharge he traveled to Europe to visit the museums and see the Œmasters‚. Upon his return to the U.S. he enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College hoping to fill some obvious gaps in his education. There he studied studio painting with Hilda Mohle, Hilda had taken a workshop with Oskar Kokoshka .. He studied with her for a year and a half. She then arranged for him to take a class with Roger Kuntz at Scripps College in Claremont CA. Because, she said, " that she had nothing more to teach him". Which was true. She had taught him all that he needed to know about painting. She understood and taught the fundamentals, no Œjargon‚,Œno hyperbole‚,Œno nonsense‚... Roger Kuntz could not add to what he had learned from Hilda. After that experience he eschewed a formal education in painting, thinking it unnecessary, and taking Œthe fundamentals‚ with him he embarked on teaching himself...

1961-1973. A period of Œcoming out‚, pilgrimages to museums and galleries, learning materials,

oil, acrylic, welded steel, wood, plaster, fiberglass, experimenting with and imitating many different styles of painting and sculpture.
Room Drawings (1973-1983)

The Œroom drawings‚ reflect the most important period in my "artistic development"... After ten years of study and making art ( abstract, nonobjective, minimalist, representational) and having little success (money wise).. I gave up the pursuit and my desire in becoming an artist.. I wished to be free of the burden... To fill the empty space left in my life, I became interested in flying

( Antoine de St Exupery ); I began intensive studies in the art of flying and after three years, I became a flight instructor and worked each day teaching students to fly aircraft.. However, I could not escape the desire to make a personal expression. So after flying all day, I would go home to my apartment and begin a drawing on 11" X 14" paper. I worked in colored pencil and ink, wanting to start from scratch, no more paint, no more big canvases. I wanted to forget all of my previous influences and the prevailing and fashionable ideas of what was art.. I wished to start from the beginning. I began by drawing a room, three walls, a floor and one point perspective. A simple compositional device, which gave me a space that could readily accommodate the disparate Œstyles‚ which were unavoidably part of my past.. Those works on paper were seminal; they liberated me from the usual contemporary conceits and prevailing Œfashions‚ of the Œart world‚ which, as a young artist, I had been imitating.. My self- identity changed, I was no longer an aspiring artist. I was now a flight instructor who made "amateur" drawings when he felt like it.. At once, I began to experience the freedom to do work without making judgments.. I wanted to know the truth of myself. I did these new works with the sole purpose of finding, where, in my being does the art, truth come from?.. These were intended as private expressions that no one would see.. For the period 1973 to1983, the Œroom drawings‚ represented an exploration of my own psyche, and I believe, the most crucial period of my artistic development, allowing me to find my own Œvoice‚. During this time, I refused to look at art magazines or go to shows or museums. I no longer felt the need to study the contemporary art establishment or seek its‚ approval..

.

1975-1985

I gave up flight instructing during these years, and found myself earning my living as a Œmodelmaker‚ in the film industry. Working on films such as"Star Wars" and "Caddy Shack", I learned techniques in woodworking, metal and plastics. Later, these advanced skills would prove to be very valuable to me, when I began to produce my own 3 dimensional works..

The "Room Drawings" , continued to develop during this period and I began to show in L.A.

in 1983. The first show was at the "Museum of Neon Art" in L.A.. It featured erotic, 3D kinetic wall pieces that were operated with spring motors ,and were informed by my work as a modelmaker.. One piece sold through the Simard Gallery that year.

1983

A solo show at the Roger Morrison Gallery in L.A. featured the late "Room Drawings", and also introduced the very first works of the "Italian Series".. More than half of the works were sold. It was a great success. And I was encouraged to go on.

The "Italian Series", marked the period when I had wished to forsake working on paper and work in oil on a more permanent ground.. The recent successes inspired me to begin a pursuit of the vocation that I had abandoned in 1973.. I had to give myself permission to do works in a more permanent material and I looked to Italy... The "Italian Series" was inspired by the academically untrained painters of the Proto-Renaissance. They had come from small villages, without art schools. They were self-taught. They were Œprimitives‚... The sincerity of their work had enormous appeal for me. If they, with their limited resources, could produce such beauty, then certainly I, with similar limitations, could give myself the permission I needed.. In 1985, I painted a self-portrait, "Amor Fati", and rededicated myself to making art. The works that followed became more and more ambitious. The work moved from single panels imitating Proto-Renaissance forms to triptychs and diptychs with narrative content.. A show titled "Anachronism" at the Matrix Gallery in Sacramento, displayed the complete "Italian Series". (The renaissance format finally culminated in a large polyptych in 1992, "The Practice of Art"...) All of these renaissance inspired early works had narrative content. The earlier ones used humor, as in, "The Birth of Pasta" ( 1983 ),"The Miracle of the Linguini"

( 1983 ), "The Expulsion of the Bad Sauce ( 1983 ). However, after suffering an automobile accident in 1985 and a scary surgery, the humorous themes fell away and more serious narratives ensued.. The gravitas surrounding the impermanence of life and the certainty of death began to appear in the works that followed.

In December1985 I quit the film industry, moved to Morro Bay and set up a studio. I was determined to make a living solely as an artist.

For inspiration and guidance, I began to look more intently at artists I admired. Gauguin, de La Tour, Goya, etc.etc.. .I was looking for themes and forms. H.C. Westermann, Henri Rousseau..... During this time I became focused on doing paintings of a single figure, I stole a pose from Lucas Cranach, and used it as a model. I was painting essentially from memory, to preserve the distortions of a primitive style.... I produced twelve folding triptychs, reminiscent of Playboy centerfolds, each titled "Eve" and I gave each her appropriate month. Eve, (January), our "original mother", as a centerfold. These were shown at the Fiona Whitney Gallery in L.A. in 1986 and all but three were sold. The line between sex object and mother was erased.

A trip to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. informed me of a massive baroque frame around a reclining nude.. Feeling finished with the folding triptych format, I was inspired to create very large and ornate frames for some reclining figures. Four large Odalisques painted from memory were shown at Koplin Gallery in 1988. Only some of the smaller studies were sold along with a large four panel, folding, hinged screen ,painted on both sides titled," The Three Graces".. This was the last of the figures painted from memory without a model.. The successful sale of the Œscreen invited me to make two more. But this time I used a live model. They were both sold from Harcourts Gallery in S.F.. During this period, I also began to make some very beautiful paintings of snails. The Œsnail‚ paintings continued for many years.. Later I found a book explaining the various symbols found in art. In western art snails and ships are symbols of the souls journey through time.

Upon the death of my father in 1989, and wishing to understand the question of mortality. I began a series of diptychs, "Vanitas", and a horizontal triptych of a reclining skeleton on a bier.

"The Big Sleep".. The mystery of life and death. Our inherited mortality. What does it mean to say life after death?. How can that be? Life is life, death is death.

Then followed a series of paintings which were shown at Koplin Gallery in 1991. I used a model and posed her picking fruit from a tree.. Looking for a title for the show, and seeking a premise for the works‚Œcontent‚, ( For me, oftentimes it occurs that the work is done first and then the meaning is discovered later. ), I located a definition that suited my purpose in the dictionary. It was of a 19th century philosophical concept, " Naturalism", eschewing the belief in a Creator. It explained simply that nature was all there ever was, is and ever will be. The show was titled "Natura Naturans". I had produced two large free-standing multi-paneled hinged- screens, along with moderate sized paintings for the show. These works ultimately were a depiction of our dependence on nature. I thought of Gauguin and the gardens of Tahiti and Eden, and while working on these paintings, I detected the erotic content in nature.

All of this time since early in1986 I had been seeking an easier path. Away from the figure, no more narratives about the human condition as in my pseudo-renaissance style. So I began to develop some still-life of fruit and some flower painting motifs, which I had been sporadically attempting..... Archetypes, simple, traditional compositions, I concentrated on painting flowers in a vase on a table. The early flower paintings used a very shallow space.( Later, I deepened the space.). I thought that the flowers would be a relief and easier to paint, since I could invent my own flower forms... They were not easier, but they were a relief, and they were appealing to collectors. So, I continued to work on the flower paintings. But I abandoned the still-life with fruit. The tree or vase of flowers are iconic images and strongly attracted me, perhaps because of the historical connotations. The crucifixion is sometimes depicted in the tree of life and death: it also resides as a metaphor in a vase of flowers... Archetypes and iconic images are very familiar, and we humans are attracted to that which is familiar. It resonates in our subconscious. I enjoyed painting the abstract qualities of invented images of flowers, and composing from memory. I continue to paint flowers in the same manner to this day. They are getting better and I enjoy seeing them develop. Working from memory creates for me a powerful and succinct image devoid of extraneous detail, which is the tyranny of real objects.

In 1991 The First Gulf War broke open the mideast. I produced a life size sculpture of a military tank and smaller sculptures executed in cardboard and encaustic. Also paintings of bombing planes and tanks, and many small drawings commenting on the engines and politics of. war. These were xeroxed and published as an edition.. They were exhibited in a show titled "Authority Figures" at Cuesta College, and also at Fullerton College.. ( Having no commercial appeal, no commercial gallery would accept showing the works ). Caught in the powerful ideas of war, I wanted to put the intense military subject matter into less obvious form, to simplify the concept of aggression .. I produced some works drawing on the drama of Cain and Abel. Humans gone mad with jealousy and hate and killing with garden tools.. I wanted to make something with historical antecedents. Something large.. I returned to the forms of the "Renaissance" and began to construct a large altar piece and some smaller works that would mimic the iconography found in Roman Catholic churches. I thought of Goya, and "The Disasters of War", I remembered how strongly those etchings had affected me when I first saw them as a young art student. Goya gave me the permission to attempt works that proclaimed human atrocities.. Ideas regarding social ills charged me to work. In 1991-1993, I completed the polyptych titled " The Practice of Art"... A large altar piece, ( eleven panels ) modeled after the "Isenhiem Altar Piece", by Grunewald, and ten ancillary panels, " The Human Series", which is presently renamed "Disturbances ". These were first shown at the Harcourts Gallery in S.F. , 1992, and later at CSU Dominguez Hills 1993. And again in 1994 at the Fresno Art Museum, 1998 at Fullerton College, and 2000 at the Cuesta College Art Gallery. These works are indictments against the politics of greed and the futile ugliness of war and its‚ machines. The ten paintings of the "Human Series" were framed as they might have been if they were actual "Stations of the Cross". They were designed to accompany the large altarpiece. Later, I reflected , that the passion of Jesus is no more horrific ( despite Mel Gibson and his multi-million dollar Œsnuff film‚) than the many millions of atrocities that ordinary human beings have been suffering for centuries... I painted these atrocities as if they had been committed in pleasant U.S. suburbs. I wanted to depict the political murders of Bosnia, Rwanda and El Salvador as if they were happening here at home. And I wanted to allude to the liturgy of Catholicism, ( Familiar forms resonate with viewers.). After these works which took two years to complete, and seeking some relief from the carnage that I had dwelt upon; I returned to painting the figure and flowers.

I believe that it was in 1993 when I sought a break from painting and began a series of sculptures based on invented mythological gods. Gods that I created in my imagination. I made five of them, along with some drawings. They were described and presented as hunting trophies and were constructed out of cardboard boxes with hot melt glue, then encaustic was worked over the surfaces. They were intended as maquettes for more permanent fabrication. I loved working with the cheap cardboard, nothing precious to worry over. They are still in my studio. I have had offers, but I cannot bring myself to letting them go.. They were a special delight for me to make. I could create a mythology in each work. They were my trophies. I had hunted superior beings, and their myths and the metaphors of their cultures were replaced with my own. I could bring down gods.

In 1994 a series of diptychs were produced, posing enigmatic questions about our own naivete, our innocence, our wonder. I had no idea of what I was about to do. I brought a model into the studio and I photographed her with 35mm slide film. Then I projected the images onto prepared diptych panels and flopped them. In the paintings the figures were posed as on a stage with a simple background of a stage curtain. They were portrayed as actors presenting a tale and told with the minimum of props, an object and the actors‚ gesture frozen in space. The figures were allowed to contemplate the props, just as the viewer is allowed into the same contemplation.. The works were puzzling. The actors were twins, flopped images creating a doppelzentner or doppelganger effect which added to the mystery of the illusion. The paintings prominently displayed Latin quotations, which I had pilfered from a Latin primer. Adding to the mystery, I selected quotes that seemed to fit the image. At the opening some people came to me and asked if I would translate the Latin for them. Of course, I could not do it, because I could not remember what the translation was. The translation was on the back of the paintings and I did not want to remove the painting from the wall. The show, titled "Sacred and Profane Acts" was shown at the Koplin Gallery that year and was a great success. I suppose that I must include the translation somewhere next time.

Then in 1996, I again tired of painting. I began experimenting with mixed media sculpture influenced by Egyptian and Asian art. I found that the Egyptian forms, which I have always admired, to be very inspiring for my experiments.. I produced a number of works which allowed me to perfect a technique that I would later refine with the Œmonks‚.. That Egyptian motif led directly into doing the busts of Buddhist monks. I began work on "A Pure Working" , this was a series of fourteen mixed media sculpture and a large, ( nine by twelve foot), painted, freestanding, hinged Œscreen‚, which honored the Buddhist monks who had burned themselves to death. ( An image of Thich Quang Duc self-burning on a street in Saigon was a most powerful remembrance for me..) These works evolved slowly over a period of nine years (1996-2005). Twelve were shown at the San Luis Obispo Art Center in 2000 and the Riverside Art Museum in 2001. Two more were added in 2005 for the Fresno Art Museum show.. These sculptures composed the finest body of work that I have ever created... ŒA Pure Working" was the most well received exhibit that I have ever done.. During those years of working on the Œmonks‚, I had also worked concurrently on the "Slave-ship Paintings" and sculpture, some figure paintings, and of course the ubiquitous flower paintings..

The "Slave-Ship Paintings" came about after repeated visits to Edgartown. Where the galleries were full of 19th century paintings of whaling ships. Full masted clippers and working ships, painted like icons. These were images that resuscitated in me a feeling of youthful adventure and romance... So I began to paint ships. Looking for content, I painted a few iconic ŒDeath Ships‚, and some ŒGhost Ships‚ before I ran out of Œjuice‚... I had no more Œcontent‚ with which I could sustain the effort. And, I wanted to do more ships. I stagnated for a while, until one day, while driving to the studio, the thought of the slave trade came to mind.. I could not wait to go to work on the slavery issue, and produce paintings of slave ships. I hastened to do research in the library,

( At that time I had no internet capability ). In addition to the paintings (about twelve), I also produced two mixed media sculptures of slave ships.. I showed the paintings at the Diane Jensen Gallery in Edgartown, in 1998 ... None sold.... Eventually, I sold half of those works and one of the sculptures, proving them to be a moderate success... They went to collectors in California and not in Edgartown. More than a year and half later, after my show in Edgartown the film "Amistad" was released., but I had already beat Spielberg to the content. Whoopi Goldberg bought several and gifted one to a collector who bought a few more.

Summers ( 1995- 2005 ), found me in Marthas‚Vineyard, attempting some plein aire landscapes. ( I liked the image of myself wearing a straw hat and painting on a beach.) From these, excursions into landscape I learned to appreciate the rhythms found in nature. This was very valuable, because later, when doing the Œmoonlight paintings‚, I focused on the rhythm that abides in the land formations. I could now invent a landscape, using an underlying abstract rhythm as a template. These could be pure abstractions, total inventions. I had found a way to make my landscape paintings using only the gesture of a self-created rhythm.....

Sometime in 2004, I began the series "Anatomica". These were of images that I copied from a catalogue listing works of wax at the Museo La Specola, which I visited while in Florence Italy. These figures, stripped of their protective skin and revealing a miraculously conceived coalition of organs and veins, muscle, tissue and nerves seemed to express the human condition in a way that no conventional figure painting could approach. These images truly beg the question, "Who are we, where do we come from, where are we going?". These images may seem somewhat shocking to people, as indeed ,they were to me upon seeing them for the first time. Still, I was compelled to investigate the anatomical and spiritual mysteries revealed in these rare sculptures. The flayed human figures appeared to me as sublimely beautiful. The languid poses seemed to express a kind of ecstasy. It is my opinion that only gifted sculptors of Italian sensibility, living in the romantic period ( c.1750-1850) could create these stunning works.. For they are much more than mere anatomical studies for medical students. By this time, after exploring the horrors of the

"Human Series"it was easy to give myself permission to claim these captivating images as a suitable subject matter. I only had to paint them honestly without thinking of the potential Œshock‚ value. Interestingly enough, these were painted at a time of some emotional suffering in my own personal life. Indeed, that is the likely reason I was attracted to these images of surgically flayed human bodies. These wax effigies, born from the hands of superb Italian sculptors, remarked to me on the pathos of a short romantic existence. They perfectly expressed my own delirium... From doing these paintings I learned that the miracle is truly within us and not without.. I am very pleased with these paintings as I look at them today. They have never been shown out side of my studio.

In 2007, a series of figure paintings ,"Cut", was shown at Frank Pictures Gallery in Bergamot Station. These works addressed psychological damage in the form of narcissism. These took me into a deeper interpretation of the figure, and my own psyche.. The figure as recipient of outside forces. It was here that I confronted my own narcissism. I have always believed that art has a value in that it reflects the psychological state not only of the artist but also that of the lover of a particular work of art.. For, why then are we attracted to certain works, except for our state of mind?.. I have never intended to do work based on what seems like a " valuable or fashionable idea"... When I began this series of figure paintings, I had no idea that I would be investigating such wounds. In all circumstances, when approaching work, I have depended solely on my intuition to guide me, and not ever knowing for certain where the work would take me. Often times I go nowhere, at other times I find myself taking what can only be described as a spectacular journey.

Also in 2005, I made an attempt at some lighthearted and romantic images depicting trapeze artists swinging about in space. These were very difficult for me to do, I still would like to explore this idea sometime in the future and take a different approach by modifying the technique. I would like to see more raw paint with wet into wet impasto. These were shown at Tops Gallery in Malibu. I then settled into doing some flower paintings.. The show was a disaster only one sold.

The "moonlight paintings" ( 2008-2009 ), provided a certain respite from Œidea‚ and allowed me to enjoy the purity of a singular gesture. These were a development of my finding the rhythm in natural phenomena that had fomented in my mind on Martha‚s Vineyard... The setting of these landscapes at night allowed me to make a significant departure from the usual landscape painting. Of course the influence of Albert Ryder is readily apparent in these paintings. And I am proud to pay homage to that dedicated mystic with the beautiful, poetic and primitive sensibility... His paintings and his life story had inspired me when I was a young and supplicant artist.

Finding Œjuice‚ in a subject is the chief motivating factor which engages me to go to work on a daily basis with joyous enthusiasm.. Finding that content or truth which gives a work Œessential significance‚ is always my hope.. When there is no idea, no rich content, I fall back on the flower motif, the figure, or perhaps a portrait... Anything is grist... And I have learned that an idea is not always necessary, for does not Œpure beauty‚ possess Œessential significance‚?. Still, it is inspiring for me to engage with a valuable and relevant idea which brings a new and rich content that I can pursue.. An interminable amount of time can go by, which finds me despairing of ever catching that magic ring of inspired content. Perhaps I should give up the quest and just settle for Œpure beauty‚.

The muse is most certainly a woman. No man would ever be so whimsical.

David Scott

San Louis Obispo December 2009

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