THE GROVEVOLUTION
I’ve
been an artist all my life; that’s all I’ve ever known. As a boy I played with
crayons, markers, pencils, pastels, wire, string, feathers, bones; I built
forts with rocks and wood; I drew, I sculpted, I created; I turned everything I
could get my hands on into something else. I saw the world very differently
than my childhood compatriots.
In
high school I spent time on the shores of the Hudson River creating art from
found objects – driftwood, shells, bits of glass. At 16, I sold my first sculpture
to a local gallery. At 16, I won a county-wide drafting award and worked as a
draftsman for a lamp manufacturer. At 16, I became a professional artist.
As
I honed my aesthetic eye, my focus turned to photography, which drew me to Rochester
Institute of Technology. While photography had captured my eye, it was at RIT where
I discovered that sculpture had captured my heart – and that the market for
sculpture wasn’t as lucrative as the decks that my partner and I were designing
and building during college summers.
An
interesting tidbit about RIT: it has one of the largest juggling communities in
America, and while there, I learned high-level juggling, like juggling fire, as
well as clowning. On weekends, I would juggle and clown; it was fun and I made
good money. I was actually accomplished enough to be accepted by Ringling
Bros., but after discovering that I would do the same act nine shows a week,
ten months a year, I declined. Not having creative freedom was a deal breaker,
but it confirmed that I needed fun to be part of anything I do, whether it’s
furniture design or teaching a class.
After
graduation, my partner and I launched a business in millwork, cabinetry, and
renovation for Rochester-area homes and businesses. We also offered architectural
reproductions that helped keep historical integrity for Western New York’s
buildings with new finials, cornices, capitals, and facades. In the mid-1990s I
became the sole owner of that business.
During
this time, I pursued my art, and realized that if I put glass on top of one of
my sculptures, I could turn it into a table – which was functional and
therefore more saleable at the time – thus I started making art furniture.
My art
furniture business had a national scope - I sold my work in galleries and art
shows across the country. Each piece features highly figured, lustrous veneers
displaying amazing depth and “chatoyance”, or the way the light plays on its
surface, as well as carved textures and polychromatic finishes. This work is tantalizing
because it’s as if they want to be
touched. In fact, I often put a sign on them – Please Touch – because they’re
so tactile and I want everyone to enjoy that feeling.
Trompe
L’oeil-carved Sycamore, Walnut Burl, Amber,
Ebonized
Oak, Palm, Semi-precious Gemstones,
In
Rochester I worked with interior designers and architects designing and
building corporate reception desks, conference room tables, executive furnishings
and the like, as well as interiors and play spaces.
My
sons were born in 1990 and 1991; artistically I connected with their curiosity
and inquisitiveness about the world and found great inspiration from them. I’m
an incredibly proud father: one is now a VP of Marketing for a social marketing
company in Los Angeles, and after a stint at Tesla, my youngest now works for
Apple in their new product development building (their secrets are safe—he tells
me nothing about his job.)
After RIT, I met Wendell
Castle and his highly-figured veneer furniture. Two things happened at that
moment. One, I felt validated because after finding sculpture, by itself, hard
to sell, I began dabbling in sculptural furniture. One day, I decided to put a
pane of glass on a piece...and suddenly I had a coffee table. I felt like I
invented sliced bread, but of course Wendell had been doing this for 20 years
already. Seeing his work validated what I was doing. Two, I saw his highly
figured veneer—rare, Curly Redwood—and it took my breath away. It was a “wow”
moment. I knew I wanted to learn everything possible about veneer, which
ultimately became the focus of my work. I like to create pieces that make you
go “wow” and want to touch them. My relationship with Wendell eventually came
full circle: he first inspired me and, years later, I became his studio
director and ran his shop for a time.
Since I’m self-taught in
veneer, and a little defiant, I questioned while I learned and tried things.
When they would say you have to book match, I’d ask, ‘why?’ So, I developed my
own techniques of asymmetrical matching and the spiral match. My wavy contour
seam technique came about after learning the double-bevel cut on a scroll saw
in a class with Silas Kopf.
Materials Avidore’, purple
heart, quilted maple, various gems, silver, copper.
McKenzie Childs ceramic legs
And, I developed my extreme
compound veneering technique––which won a Veneer Tech Craftsman’s Challenge
Award in 2012––when I took a mold of a nude woman and veneered her torso.
In 2006 I reconnected with a
high school crush, my heart’s desire, Nancy Napurski. We were on the gymnastics
team together in high school; one of my earliest works at this show was given
to her for her 13th birthday, and she first modeled for me when she
was 16 years old.
She is my muse, my inspiration,
my partner. We married on 11-11-11 and have become a dynamic team; we are filled
with infectious enthusiasm for art, travel, romance, dance, new experiences. She
complements me, encourages me, supports me, and allows me to grow in my own
ways.
And now I’m a master craftsman,
artist, sculptor, teacher, author, tool designer, and social media personality.
I lecture, demonstrate, and judge at national conferences as well as regional and
local woodworking groups, and I’m an expert in veneer and inlay, I have an
unconventional approach to all I do, and I constantly push boundaries to
develop new and unique methods of creating functional art.
With life changes and a
maturing, unending creative flow, I find myself drawn to new challenges in
woodworking and woodturning, and investigating new ways of using materials like
resin and inlay. I’m also exploring the exciting world of YouTube and TikTok
and embracing social media as an artistic outlet as well as a teaching medium.
The GrovEvolution reveals my
art throughout my life so far, from high school through today. I hope you’ll
enjoy the view.
See Scott speak about his work at Yuma Art Symposium 2020!!
For more about Scott click HERE
To see Scot at Yuma Art Symposium 2020 click
HERE
For more about Yuma Symposium click
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