Artist Statement
I'm a former professional marathoner who has turned to writing, painting and photography as a means of self-expression and to fulfill my need for concentrated action followed by periods of rest and regeneration. In my creative work I strive to find the balance between fluid movement, instinctive and uncensored, and thoughtful, intentional spacing—the calm within the chaos.
I envision the whole of my art, product and practice, as a type of poem. I hope my work elicits a feeling of active melancholy—an awareness of the transitory nature of life and the motivation to navigate the everyday with joy and humility.
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Taken during my 500 mile journey on the Colorado Trail.
Bio or How My Past Influences My Work
Self proclaimed family motto: Nil carborundum illegitamae "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
The fact that I begin this abridged bio with a bogus latin phrase, a family motto embraced solely by me, says something about my tendency toward self-mythologizing the banalities of existence to survive the day with greater prospects than wiping the drool from my beard.
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Self portrait, The Colorado Trail.
I seemed to have contradicted the hopeful opening statement about the pleasures of reality — such are the vicissitudes of life.
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As a kid I was sports obsessed and truthfully, I still am. I slept with my basketball. Yeah, that kind of obsessed. A hardcore hoops junkie. Take it to the hole or shoot the J? What type of ball player did I want to be? Essentially, did I want to be the Bruce Dalrymple or Mark Price of Boulder, Colorado? I chose the former. Movement and freedom, sometimes out-of-control, trumped the stationary aesthetics of a jump shooter.
I loved and always will love the Denver Broncos. Wide receiver Haven Moses was my favorite player. The first time I saw a woman's breasts I was in the south stands during a Monday night game against the Oakland Raiders. I was around eight.
My personal progression of self mythologizing emulator.
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Myths and legends allow us to reach our full potential through self-identification with our heroes. We achieve and become what logic and inhibition tells us is impossible.
When I was young, I watched diminutive and powerful Tanzanian Juma Ikangaa battle the sleek and graceful Ibrahim Hussein on TV. Juma always seemed to come in second but he ran with a fierce determination. He ran from the front with a willful disregard for the limits of the human body. As Ibrahim pulled away, I remember thinking, "Why doesn't Juma just run harder?"
In 2001 I won the US championship at the NYC marathon. I ran out of my head, beyond my talent level. When I hit the hills of central park I tried to "run harder" but couldn't. I crossed the finish line in 13th place overall, at a jog, not even able to break the tape. No one runs 26.2 miles believing the wall exists, at least not for them, even if they've hit it a hundred times. Mark Plaatjes my coach and friend used to ask me, "Scotty, why you want to bang you're head against the wall?" Implying, rightly so, that I was stubborn and insisted on always taking the hard way. I guess if I had to answer that question today I'd say, because once the wall becomes a wall what's the point?
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Gloucester, MA.