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Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Andrew Trimble.
Scott Andrew, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
An avid reader from a young age, I formally trained as a writer. However, my zest for authorship quickly waned as each idea arrived in toto, with a beginning, middle and end, leaving little to do beyond laying a trail of words between Points A and Z. For me, that linear process wanted for surprise, so I took up painting as an antidote to penning.
I began painting about 40 years ago, paused for a few decades while helping to raise two fine sons, and returned to it with gusto in 2013. I am fortunate to have my work shown widely and often, and cherish the great friendships that continue to evolve from within an art community that delivers a tremendous amount of joy and welcome stimulation.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am interested in memory and the way that it functions.
I have found that, as time passes, details increasingly fall away from most memories. For example, what was once a crisp and multi-faceted remembrance of that old music collection usually narrows down to a short list of favorite songs. In the end, every recollection will morph from thought to emotion to sensation. I like to think of the process as an act of simplification or purification.
Collections of memories crystallize our unique personalities, sharpen the boundaries marking our individuality. Still, as remembrances fade, the absence of detail makes them become more relatable. Quirks can be seen as purely natural phenomena. With that vantage, tolerance for differences should be effortless. That is what I hope people take away from my work – an increased understanding that unique differences between people are completely natural; that tolerance too is the most natural state of being.
I paint only the essence of an experience, an observation, not a mirror of the physical world, using figures and tone to present tangles of emotive observations, avoiding distinguishing features to provide the widest berth for empathy. The figures are not representations, they are avatars, proxies for fragments of memory. Those represented events are concentrated into very, very short stories –pocket narratives.
My paintings have an open door between the title and the image. That offset is an invitation to absorb a moment’s embrace of possibility, to play differing strings of the human melody.
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
The role of artists has never changed. Artists have always been, and remain, fully engaged in weaving the socio-political fabric of society.
Progress follows fresh viewpoints.
Life moves forward.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I am very excited that my painting Brute Force of Thought will be on the cover of Oxford University Press’ forthcoming book by a leading philosopher of law, Kenneth Einar Himma, Morality and the Nature of Law. Himma’s work, out in February 2019, is more important than ever, and he’s both a former Chicagoan and a great supporter of the arts.
You can find my work at auction at the Los Angeles Art Association live July 28, and on Paddle8 in the weeks leading up to the live auction. You can also see several works at Santa Barbara’s gem of a gallery, 10 West, opening August 2nd. I also have some exciting ventures in the irons. In the meantime, the best way to support my work is to simply support free thought and creativity. Recognize the value in differences, and focus on what you like, rather than what you don’t like.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://scottatrimble.com
- Email: scottatrimble@msn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trimble.scott.a/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.trimble.54
- Other: https://www.artsy.net/10-west-gallery/artist/scott-andrew-trimble
Image Credit:
Photo of me copyright 2017 by Sheri Neva
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
Scott Andrew Trimble
July 17, 2018 at 5:02 pm
Correction: 10 West Gallery opening is August 2nd, not August 10th.