Scout

"I paint. And print. In Columbia County - Upstate, NY. When it's warm, I do it in my barn. When it's cold, I do it in my basement Using primarily spray paint, 'house' paint and other non-traditional art supplies, I combine my love of American folk-art and portraiture with my background in graffiti and street-art to create works that are both graphic and layered with historical markings. I explore in and around abandoned and derelict buildings for neglected and forsaken signs and pieces of metal and wood. These artifacts become my canvases. This ‘mining the waste-stream’ is a crucial component of my current practice, as the history and information contained within the reclaimed piece becomes an integral part of the new work."

For painter Scout/Pines, the street is a canvas. The artist surreptitiously places his stencil-art paintings on abandoned buildings in distressed communities. There, they usually disappear fast—unscrewed by collectors or lucky passers-by. His pieces—painted with spray paint or house paint on reclaimed plywood or old metal—depict real-life people on the periphery: the have-nots, the overlooked, the marginalized. He tries to place them in historical context, in neighborhoods similarly forgotten and neglected but where the art will have meaning to people living there.