Scotty White

The Fanaei Building

2209 1st Avenue North


New School Escapism is the term I use to describe my current artwork. I explore escapist worlds with influence taken from expressionism, surrealism, lowbrow, pp, and abstract art. My work contains bizarre eye candy elements enhanced b bright vivid color, tricky dimensions, and twisted perspective. I paint a wide range of subjects that include alien like characters, robotic stick figures, exotic females, tweaked out pets, space cruisers, foreign landscapes, and futuristic architecture. The study of form, mass, structure, color theory, and story element are important aspects of my work.

I paint with oil or acrylic on a variety of surfaces: canvas, wood, polystyrene foam, and collage I like working on skewed and shaped panels. Some of my work includes sculpted three-dimensional elements or multiple panels that can be interchanged to create new compositions or characters.

I grew up in the small town of Rainsville, Alabama. There were no art programs at my school, but an unseen force filled me with the need to create. I felt the power of art at an early age. While in kindergarten I received a zero on an art project for using the “wrong” colors. That moment was my first clue to a hidden fate. I was unable to participate in my fourth grade balloon release experiment because my identification card drawing was “inappropriate.” During the sixth grade I created my first comic book. It depicted the social and dating scene of my classmates and me. The comic was a huge success. My friends loved the Jenny Brown illustration. The book was stolen from my locker and fame exploded throughout the school. Later on in high school I would often answer test questions with drawings rather than words. These illustrations led to more zeros and very little encouragement. I also used my skills for humorous propaganda posters, drawings, BMX zines, flyers/t-shirt designs for local southern and punk rock bands. During my third year of college I signed up for my first art class and finally received some encouraging words. This was the start of my education in graphic design and also led me to painting. I have studied visual arts at Northeast State Junior College, Athens State University, the University of Alabama, and Jacksonville State University (BFA 2004). It was my fifteenth and final year of college when I finally changed my major to painting and sealed my fate.