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| Commentary: "Artist vs. House Painter" The concept for "Artist vs. House Painter"first came to me in 2006 while I was working on "George Washington Bridge". I walked out of my apartment one morning on my way to work, to find an old painters ladder that had been placed out on the garbage next door. I had been playing with the idea of doing more three dimensional work after recently seeing a Robert Rauschenberg exibit at the Metropolitan museum of art... |
| The worn and splattered ladder hit me instantly as the perfect vehicle to express my feelings on the subject of living as an artist but still having to work rather un-artistically for my survival. I had also just started leaving the first of the "Six Cents None the Richer"series about the city for people to find and interact with. The idea of the supposed "value of art" was fresh in my mind. This was also about the time when I had just made a 100% self commitment to environmentalism. I proposed to work exclusively in found materials on all my projects from now on. I scoffed up the ladder and leaned it against my back door.
Later that night, as I began to tear it apart, as string of memories began to flood though me. I remembered working very long and hard as a young adult. Together with my Father I would do odd house painting jobs around our neighborhood for extra money. The ladder put up quite a struggle in coming apart. I spent a good 2 hours bashing it with a hammer and screwdriver. For all of it's weak and worn appearance (which probably contributed to it being discarded), it held fiercely to it's original form. I became transfixed with the notion of the seemingly effortless nature of a finished piece of art versus the sometimes back breaking work it takes to get there. I remembered feeling sore to the bone like this after painting an entire home. A good pain that accompanies stepping back, and viewing your finished work. A sense of accomplishment that money can not buy. Artist vs. House Painter embodies the fact that, while I would like to someday be able to live solely off the precedes my art creates, it is absolutely NOT the reason I create it! - Scott Hill - |
 (2007) 68 x 18 x 2 Assembalage / de-construction Painters ladder, acrylic, gloss medium Available for public view upon request |
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