SCOTT CONARY
ART TALK
Raised where the east coast suburbs filtered into the woods and farms, Scott Conary creates oil paintings of everyday objects and places with which we have complicated and often ambiguous relationships. Pulled from their context, they have something to say about how we interact with the world and each other. These are stories of the arbitrary nature of beauty, of melancholy, of fleeting triumph, and the camouflage of time: the meat we greedily consume but are repulsed by, the weed that fights to survive in the gaps of our attention, the old door used for generations but now forgotten, and so on.
Fueling and inspiring this work is his young daughter's battle with complicated heart defects, her experiences with disability, and the impact that has had on those around her. This has directed his focus towards the narratives and tensions in the common, and is why he wanders deeper into the thicket of representational work.
His approach to teaching is to give the students more tools to express their ideas. “Technique and craft should be honed, but the artist must remain open and willing to play. And so must those who teach them.”
He and his family live in Portland, Oregon.
"What is the story? why am i painting this?" -Scott Conary
INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT CONARY
Interviewed by Jeannie Ballew
"I want a painting to have a form, a mass, a substance of the essential and mysterious beyond the formal matters of light and color. I want it to resonate with the idea of a place, thing or a history.
To this end a painting is largely an act of intuition. The way a mark is made and how it builds the image is itself a response and as important as the final image. This creates a tension between abstract and representation, and leaves room for the viewer to themselves react and participate.
This is part of the basic urge to scribble something, to shape the world, and to scrutinize and try to understand that world. This is an old idea of the magic that can be art. This is the painting of my heroes - DeKooning, Degas, Rembrandt, Wyeth."
