Derek Scott

Strict art schooling never sat well with Lebanon-based artist Derek Scott. As a child, he spent his days pretending to be the XO Bandit from Sesame Street. Brandishing a green crayon, he ran around his house drawing X’s and O’s all over the walls. In art school, the traditional didactic approach put him to sleep. “After high school,” he recalls, “I’d just about had it with still life and drawing or painting what was in front of me. I wanted to use my imagination and do something original. In the last drawing course I took, I went way outside the box on every assignment. I barely passed, but I grew from it and learned more than what the teacher had to offer.” Determined not to let art become a dull task, he currently accepts new projects based on his own level of interest.

Part of what keeps the projects fun is working with family and friends. Over the years, Scott has created logos for bands and studios as well as t-shirt and tattoo designs. Lately, he’s assisted his friends from West Hartford’s New Vizion Studio. “They had asked me to design a logo for them along with a few newspaper and web advertisements,” Scott explains. “I was honored and more than happy to help them out.”

When he’s not finishing a commercial project, Scott explores his own personal endeavors. There are no pastoral landscapes or charcoal still-lifes in his portfolio. Each one of Scott’s creations comes from deep within the confines of his cranium. Faces sketched in pencil drip from the page while boney fingers reach out to touch the viewer. “I see a lot of darkness in the world,” he adds, “and I’ve always been fascinated with the darker side of things. I tend to draw my inspiration from what’s going on around me. A lot of it is an internal conversation between my head and me.”

In the future, Scott hopes to showcase and share more of his work in galleries. As a lifelong resident of Connecticut, he looks forward to watching the state’s artists grow and develop. “The Connecticut art scene is unique because it’s young,” he insists. “Impressionistic oil paintings of New England landscapes have always been kind of what you think about when you think about Connecticut. But as far as street art and outsider art goes, Connecticut is fresh and untouched. There is a lot of unmarked territory and there are many up-and-coming artists waiting to be heard.”

Website: Online Portfolio
Blog: Derek’s Blog