Life without owning a television

Holly and I moved into a new condo a month ago… and we love it! One of the things we did is we sold our tv anv dvd player at our garage sale.  we both have computers and we have wi-fi… so if we really want to watch something you can find most things online.  and we can always watch series or movies on our computer.  in fact, we don’t really watch any television during the week except Lost (at a friends) when it’s on and project runway (online).  otherwise we get our news from websites or NPR… and in fact we are pretty much busy all the time, tv shows aren’t really interesting to us.

 

so that’s us.  i know not everyone else is like that.  TV shows are a big part of their life.  

it is strange to me though.  have you ever NOT watched tv for awhile and then watch again.  it’s very odd.  i totally think you get desensitized to it all… and it just seems the norm.  but when you live real life for awhile without tv then watch it again… it just seems like a lot of hype and shock to keep you interested.  and the thing is is nothing is really real on tv.  it’s all spun and contrived.  i had friends who worked for CNN and they both said never watch CNN for your source for news.  they said it’s all manipulated and half truths.

 

anyway, i don’t want to spend this blog space bitching about how bad tv is.  it’s got good as well.  but i just don’t think it makes my life better.  when i’m old and about ready to die, i’m never going to wish i spent more time watching “lipstick jungle” or all the jackass episodes.  i’m going to wish i did more with real people and did more adventurous things with my life.

 

anywho… a friend told me about this movie called “network” where a guy speaks out against tv.  the networks hate it, but he gets such high ratings so they keep him on the air.  here is an awesome clip from the film….

life and new paintings

(“the dealing of a dead faith”)

(“the heavens and me”)

 

Wow.  It’s been awhile since I’ve written a blog.  Life has been busy.  But who’s isn’t?  Seriously, I’d like to meet the person when you ask them how life has been responds, “Slow.  I haven’t been doing anything and I don’t know what to do with all this time on my hands!”.  That’s nobody in the circles I know.  

 

Anywho, life has been busy because I’ve been trying to juggle a few things all at the same time.  The above paintings are two of six paintings I hope to finish by the end of the year.  Now I do alot of live paintings… and this takes a lot of my creative energy.   But with live work and commission stuff, I’ve found that I haven’t been developing my own studio work.  These six are an attempt to up my studio game, and to also challenge myself with work I’d like to start doing more and more.  It’s a bit of a self challenge to see what I really can do when I put sometime into the studio.  This whole series is based on spiritually oriented conversations I’ve had over the last year.  The two key ingredients will be people and birds.  the people represent us, and the birds represent faith/the spirit/God depending on which painting it is.  Anyway, I hope to get them all done by the end of the year and hopefully have some kind of show in the Seattle area.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

COMISSIONS…..

These are a few commissions I’ve done over the last month…..

(commission for a wedding)

(commissions for my friend Jonathan Rich…. who already has a vespa painting of mine and wanted to finish the triology)

 

5 SPOT PAINTING

Of course, every 3 months I make a painting for my favorite restaurant in Seattle…. the 5 Spot.  Their new festival theme is “Oregon” and my subject matter was Crater Lake.  As you can see, I took a bit of a detour.  By the way…. the food is awesome!  Holly and I think the Pork Porterhoues is the most amazing dish.  We are definitely going back and both getting just that dish!

 

I’M A NEW UNCLE!!!!!

And last but not least, I am a new uncle.  My bro and his wife had a beautiful huge (10 pounds!) boy named Isaiah Cruz Erickson.  He is an awesome addition to the Erickson clan….

 

 

Well…. that’s life for now.  We are moving into our new condo and I am doing some exciting events in the next month that will keep me busy.  Hopefully I’ll get back in the habit of checking in here!

 

Many Cheers and Blessings

Make space for art

 

scott

My Cable TV Experience

 

I recently got to be on an episode of the Seattle Channel’s Artzone (episode 5/15/08).  It’s a local television show highlighting the Seattle art scene with every kind of medium in mind.  Usually on their show, they have a painting displayed in the studio and Nancy Guppy, the host, describes the painting : who made it, the inspiration, yadda yadda yadda.

 

I happened to have made friends with Nancy a few years ago.  First I waited on her and her mom at the killer queen anne restaurant the 5 Spot, where i used to work.  i wow’d her and her mom and said i was a big fan of almost live (a local SNL of sorts).  a few years later i was doing a gig with WorldVision at Bumbershoot and i saw nancy and a camera guy walking around… so i went over to her…. she remembered me… and i told her what i was doing… and they came over and did a featurette on my africa mural at bumbershoot. 

 

i lately got put in touch with her again because of a mutual friend who i was telling my television show idea to.  she gave me nancy’s info and we had a phone conversation about how to put a show together.  in that conversation, she invited me to be on her show and i said i should paint in studio… since that’s my shtick.  one thing led to another…. and voila! the show that you can watch.

 

nancy asked if i could bring in three paintings to have in the background while i was painting.  i went through my limited collection of on-hand work and i brought the steve zissou portrait, a picture of holly by the ocean, and the painting below called “the Value of $300″….

 

When we had a little break from taping, i went out to the snack tray to grab some fruit and some awesome banana bread.  one of the women in the sound booth came out and joined me in the enjoyment of the tray.  we started talking and she said she was enjoying my painting in studio and thought it would be a great episode.  i thanked her and told her i was having a great time.

 

She started asking me about my paintings…. and then brought up the painting that is above.

“it’s really freakin me out,”  she said.  

“Good,” i replied. “it freaks me out too.”

She asked me what it meant and i explained to her that it was actually part of a series that sought to highlight some of the things that are killing the spirituality of the north american church.  this one was about materialism.  the name “the value of $300″ pointed to the fact that for $300 you could have an ipod or you could help and actual human being survive for a year and provide a future for them.  it’s not a knock on owning and ipod and saying that material goods are evil and we should have none.  the only i’ve learned how to explain it is from a scene in steven spielberg’s Schindler’s List.  if you haven’t seen it it’s about a wealthy nazi business man, played by liam neeson, who is heartbroken by the torture of jews and decides to hire jewish prisoners into his business sneakily and ends up saving the lives of 1100 people.  when the war ends, he let’s everyone go and tells them he must flee cause he is part of the nazi party.  when he is saying good bye to his closest jewish partner, played by ben kingsley, he says to him ” i could have done more….”

i found this scene on-line so you can see what i’m talking about

(this was put online by the jewish task force… so their little propaganda titles are a the beginning and the end)

 

I told her about this scene and how oscar schindler said that he could have done more.  he looks at his car and he did not see a car, but a way that he could have bought 10 more jewish lives with it.  his gold pin on this jacket could of at least gotten one more life.  

 

i think the meaning of this painting is not against materialism… but that i wonder if we will all have the moment at the end of our lives (whether we are physically alive or dead) when we will see all our material resources in the light of human life… and we will realize that human life was the most important thing… and we will have wished that we could have done more.  i hoped that this painting helped me to keep in perspective what is most important and how i was going to use my resources in life.  

 

the girl from the studio said that loved that and appreciated the explanation.  then we went back to our places and continued to do what we needed to do.

 

i had a great time at the studio and i think that nancy’s show is great.  it also meant a lot to me to talk with that woman from the studio about the painting i made.  it made me realize that art can really cause a heart change, and that although that art with agenda can often fail, it can also change the way we see the world.  a painter that i really respect said one time “the job of the artist is to wake the viewer up.”  i really believe that.  not that i think that everything that i make has to be culture changing.  i’m not that profound.  but my hope is that it can be more that just a way to accent your walls and match furniture.  it can have the power to change things.  i want to be a part of that.  it’s what i have to offer to the fight.  and i hope i learn to wield it well.

 

finally… nancy wanted to endorse me in some way, and we taped this little diddy

 

 

My Last Email Newsletter…

I have been sending out an email newsletter for the last year.   This is the last one.  Not the last communicating…. well, just read.

 

FRIENDS….

This is going to be my last formal transpire update letter.

I’ve been meaning to write this update for the last month now…. but i just couldn’t find the motivation to do it.  today, seemingly, i have it.  so let’s just say it’s the “right” moment for me to communicate with you about what has occured and what is to come in my journey as an artist.

(painted at The Grove in Chandler, AZ during Easter celebration)

Last time i wrote to most of you, i was waiting to hear back from numerous schools whether or not i was accepted into their graduate painting programs and if it would be paid for by the grant i applied for.  Well…. it was a unanimous “sorry” from all six schools and from the people at the jacob javits fellowship.

Now this could have been a hard thing to swallow… especially since i had been planning to go to grad school for the last 8 months and had spent countless hours and about $800 getting all my application requirements together.  In this case, really the heart of the matter was that i haven’t felt a sense of what it is that i am doing as an artist over the last year.  Sure i have been working on a lot of projects, but i couldn’t find the major theme running through them all except that i have kept putting myself in public places painting live whether it be glamorous or extremely awkward. What i have been looking for is the momentum in what i do.  I think applying to grad school was a grasp at maybe trying to figure that all out.

About the time i was receiving my rejection letters, i had a profound event happen to me in my studio.  I was in there stretching canvas (a very boring and painful process)…  and out of no where, i don’t know how to describe it to you, but i had an idea downloaded to me about making a television show about art and it’s process.

Many of us have ideas about lots of different things, and this wasn’t the greatest idea ever… so at the time i just thought, “hmm… that’s a cool idea”… and left it at that.  But it was the events after this idea that have led me to believe that this is the next project that i am supposed to work on. Events like….

- someone approaching me at a coffee shop saying they owned some of my artwork, had some money, and wanted to make a film about what i do… now being on board wanting to finance this other idea

-me ending up in a documentary film and getting a chance to connect with that filmmaker on how to put a film together

-all the random connections i’ve made lately with directors, producers, cinematographers who have ins at major studios

-someone giving me a G5 Mac for editing, when that was the exact computer i was praying for so that i could do some video editing on….

(Round 30 at the Nectar Lounge, Seattle)

There are plenty more stories to tell.  But there are a few things I realized.  One, i realized that this wasn’t just an idea, but something i’m supposed to do. I wasn’t even trying to make this happen, but it was without me.  So i’m owning up to that. Two, this kind of work with video/art/story is a sort of accumulation of all my past experiences and endeavors coming into one idea.  It’s the next step of letting people experience the creative process and helping to tell stories through it.  and three, this is the momentum that i was looking for.  Out of my plans for grad school dying, something new was born that makes me excited again about what i am doing artistically.

Maybe your thinking right now, “great, but could you tell us the idea?”
If you are… sorry, but i’m not going to  The reason why is that currently i have assembled a team and we are about ready to film our first project and in a few months we’ll have it in a
format that you can see for yourselves.  Also, i don’t want to tell you “exactly” what it’s going to be in case it  changes a bit in the creative process.  And…. well, i want to keep it on the down low until we are done with it.  I have no misconceptions that this will be a very difficult project, and  it will take a bit of time… and we might fail at first… or make  something really crappy.  So i just want to let you know what’s coming up, but no promises.

(painted at Earth Day Festival in West Seattle)

So there you go.  That’s the next direction for me.  I am still going to be making art work and doing live events.  In fact i  have some exciting events coming up. But as for a direction for me, it’s  going to be in this realm of film.

If you’ve made it this far in the email, you are a champ.

The reason this is my last update is that:

1) i have changed my website to a new format

2) i will be sending small updates through it’s new format

With the help of my friend Brian Ward (shout out!), my site has changed to  a more blog base instead of what it was before.  Why don’t you just check it out. click WEBSITE.

As for updates, if you would like to still receive email updates about what is continuing with the Transpire Project, please click UPDATE.
It will take you about 20 seconds to switch over.

And…. I am no longer using scott@thetranspireproject.com any longer.  Too much junk mail now.  So please switch my info over to transpireproject@gmail.com from
now on.

Okay… i just wanted to end with some upcoming events:

May 14-15 | Logan Martin

I will be painting with my friend Logan at some shows he has around the
Seattle area. Check his myspace  site for more info…

14th – Snohomish Faith Assembly | 7pm

15th – Q Cafe, Ballard | 8pm | Benefit show – $7 @ door

May 17 | Charlie Peacock Concert | Fremont Abbey Arts Center |
8pm

This is a fund raiser for the Artist Life Guild… and it should be an
awesome show.  If you are a musician and interested in picking charlie’s brain about  songwriting, recording, touring, producing…. check out the ALG website  for info about a luncheon with him earlier that day.

May 20, 2008 | Derek Webb | Washington DC

I will be in DC with WorldVision’s Acting on Aids group doing live painting and art advocacy education while students lobby for AIDS initiatives to our nations senators. Derek Webb will be doing a concert amidst this time and i will be joininghim with live artwork.

That’s a few things this month. There is much more on my new calendar page on my website, so check it out.

Thanks everyone for your support in this artist journey.  I’m constantly blown away by your words, emails, and phone calls that encourage me to keep going in this whole thing.  You have no idea how many times an encouraging email has been the catalyst for me to come out of a slump and to keep building this “invisible castle”.
So thankyou.

I hope we can continue to be in contact with one another.

Until the next time… on my new e-letter….. cheers.

Keep making space for art

Scott

 

 

here are some recent paintings and events:

Live painting at the Lululemon store in University Village. I have artwork
hanging in the store, but they want me to keep doing things like this

Recent commission painting about women in Guinea and Liberia

Round 33 painting

Live painting at a small rural church in Mexico….

Painting with Trace Bundy @ the Triple Door in Seattle

I have t-shirts for sale!
You can buy them on my website.

Rob Bell is my Homeboy

I met and talked to Rob Bell yesterday.  

First…* a little bit about him.

this is what he looks like:

Rob is the founder and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He speaks all over the world and has done a series of videos dealing with modern christian spirituality with the group Nooma. He’s also funny and a pretty snazzy dresser. *

 

In Seattle, there is an event called the seeds of compassion going on.  the dalai lama was here as well as archbishop desmond tutu talking about compassion and how to bring about a culture of compassion in a modern world torn by hate and warfare.  

it’s been brillant and not so brillant , but i’m glad it’s here.  this event has also brought out many different people from different faiths for interfaith conversations…. one of which was rob bell.

 

Rob has had a great effect on my life.  Even though I have never met him before, i have listened to his teachings over the last few years and they have greatly helped me in forming a faith and lifestyle that seems appropriate to the teachings and ways of jesus.  he is a voice for many of us, i believe, who have experienced church growing up and found that the religion we had as adults seemed obscure, powerless, and out of place in our lives.  he and many others in his community have been wrestling with the scriptures and seeking ways to live it out appropriately.   ways like taking care of the poor is not just giving money to non-profits, it means that when 20000 people in grand rapids are going to go without heat during the winter, we should be doing something about it cause that’s not okay.  stuff like that, where you think to yourself “yes! this IS what we are supposed to be doing!”  anyway, i go to meet him.

 

i met him earlier in the day at an interfaith conversation.  there was only about 60 people there so afterwards i bumped into him and shook his hand.  now i know that meeting him is more of a big deal to me than him.  i can’t imagine how many people he meets and talks to throughout a year but it must be staggering.  so i just wanted to shake his hand and say thanks and encourage him to keep doing what he’s doing.  that’s all.  so i did this.  he asked my name and i told him.  then right then, a friend of mine came up and shook his hand as well.  now my friend is a big fan too….. but i think when you are thanking someone or you’re really excited to meet them, it can be a little creepy.  you know, a little obsessive.  this was definately what came across.  i’m sure rob is used to things like that.  in fact as i saw him interact with people, he was really in the moment all the time.  only once later in the evening, that i saw him start to withdraw.  but who can blame him.  he’s gotta be tapped out by the end of the day.  and especially talking with christians… yikes! that’s alot of talking through opinions and dealing with looney celebrity lovers.

 

this blog is getting longer than it should be, so i’ll get right down to it.  i ended up going with some friends to a conversation thingy that night at shoreline vineyard church that rob was going to be at.  doug pagitt from solomon’s porch in minneapolis was also there (which he is a hoot as well).  anyway, rob shares and then is in the back standing by me, ben katt, and jered singleton. ben is my friend who is planting a church and holly and i are helping him, and we had had lunch that day talking through some dynamics of our community.  i was talking to ben that night about how weird it must be to be just a regular guy with a wife and kids, yet also be the front leader for a massive church and a global kind of movement in new christian thought.  i was wondering how he dealt with that.  so since we were standing right by him, i went over and asked him about the tension he lives in as a person and yet a leader.  

 

and this is what he told me, and the reason i even wanted to write a blog about it. he said that what people need is good leaders to lead them.  if we are leaders in any kind of situation, we need to walk in that to the best of our ability.  know where you want to go, and go.  he said you used to get worried that many people might become too focused on him as the lead pastor at mars, so he would give a bad sermon every now and then or try to have long times of silence so people wouldn’t get too attached to him.  but he said he learned that that wasn’t helping anybody.  so he said go and lead and do it the best you can.  

 

a couple thoughts.  

one, this was so encouraging to hear. i think often, maybe cause i’m young, it’s hard to think about being a leader and walking in that role.  we want to falsely humble ourselves and cast aside that responsibility because we don’t want to seem prideful and arrogant.  i think there is a demand for humility with leadership, but rob is right, it doesn’t do anybody any good to take the responsibilities and roles you have and not walk in them.  i feel like lately i’m being called up to maturity in some of the things i’m endeavoring to do.  in fact in a time of prayer, the lord told me that it’s time to be an adult.  not that what i had done or had been doing before was wrong.  in fact it was right… but now is a whole new level that i need to step in.  that’s a very personal conversation, but in this context of talking with rob, his words really hit there.  

two… why i think God has blessed the work he’s given to rob is that rob has maintained a certain level of humility through the whole thing.  seriously, the guy is down to earth when you are around him.  there is no pretentiousness, no kind of why are you talking to me thing going on, no i have all the answers.  he is just really sad about how things are and really really hopeful that jesus wants to mobilize his church to be his hands and feet in the dirty work that needs to be done.  and he seems to have an appropriate view about what god has given him to do and how he should do it.

 

anyway, it was great to meet him.  i’m not that interested in meeting celebrities, but i am stoked when i can get to be around a mentor or someone i really respect.  but i’m more of a “either we have dinner and hang or i’d rather not meet at all” kind of guy.  at least we got to talk for five minutes and then snuck out the back with him as he walked to his car and jered and me to mine.  i almost, almost asked for a picture of us to have proof about the whole meeting, but that would have defeated the whole standard i’ve set for myself.  so now, the proof i have is…

 

i met rob bell and all i got was this blog entry.

 

Easter Art Project

I was at the Grove Community Church in Chandler, AZ over Easter weekend.  they have had me out before and we’ve built quite a nice friendship together.  good peeps.  really into art.

 

sunday morning is a crazy time for anyone who works at a church.  colby martin (the worship leader) and i left the house at 530 am to get to the church to set up.  since a greater population attend church on easter sunday, the grove had 5 services going on instead of there usual three.  i only had to paint during four of them… starting at 745 and ending around 1 pm…. but it was still a whirlwind.  we would literally have 7 minutes between each service.  i did four different paintings that morning.  in this 7 minutes, i would have just enough time to switch boards, shake a few hands, and go pee.  

 

but it all worked out fine.  and i think i made some pretty cool stuff. below are the four paintings i made that morning.  the theme was transformation… how the cross and resurrection of jesus change our lives from the inside out.

 

service 1

 

service 2

 

service 3

(i do have to say that this is very similar to a blaine fontana painting.  different, but based off an idea of his.  he’s rad by the way….

 

serrvice 4

 

all these images are 4ft x 4ft and are acrylic paint on hardwood.