Description

SCOTIA DAUGHERTY, Artist/Painter
The Artist's Story

THE BEGINNING:
I have been drawing and creating since I was old enough to fit my chubby little toddler fingers around a crayon. At first I played with color and texture, then for a long time I wanted only to represent the world around me with the designs and artwork that existed inside my head.

There were many unicorns.

My first “agent” was a 3rd grade classmate named Sam who would sell my drawings for $1.00 a piece. We would split the change and then splurge on orange sherbet push-pops in the school lunchroom.

My teenage yeast were a mix of dark pencil drawing and think-sharpie Zentangles interwoven with quotes from Sylvia Plath and The Smiths as well as my own moody teenage-angst poetry.

THE MIDDLE:
Then, I stopped. I stopped creating. I taught middle school English, then Theater, then grade school. I sunk into being a wife and teacher. Something was missing – I stopped really creating. After a year of living on the Upper West Side I decided I wanted to try to paint. I went to the hardware store down the block and bought some house paint samples and brushes. I got a big canvas to experiment on. I just wanted to play in the paint – I was just messing around. Just like the toddler and her tempera set, I wanted to experiment and see what the materials could do, how they would mix. This “messing around” has become my ethic.

AND NOW:
When I can grab a few hours of flow space from being mommy, wife, and teacher, I still play and I create. I paint. Sometimes a painting lives in my head for a while before I do anything. I let it stew like a good gumbo until it is ready. Each painting takes on a life of its own as it is created. The work lets me know when it’s done. Sometimes I mix the representational work in with the more abstract, especially when I create pieces centered around my daughter. These pieces are more reflections of memories or feelings from a particular moment than a “picture of.”

Today my main medium is acrylic on large canvases. Many pieces are highly textural and incorporate metallic leaf and modeling compound.

Additional Information