Skottie has always loved art, nature, and connecting with people. He's had a long, successful career in design and art direction for the publishing and tech industries. Several years ago he designed his home and botanical gardens in Austin, Texas, known as Tanglewild Gardens, where he hybridizes daylilies with his husband, and pursues his digital art. He's inspired by texture, color and form — a fallen seed, small creature, or a striking individual may serve as his muse, and he takes photographs of that muse to be used as a base for his artwork.
More recently Skottie has started to explore AI (Artificial Intelligence) as a way to explore new directions in his work, and currently creates his own muses. He still uses photographs of individuals who do exist, but through AI, he digitally “hybridizes” new people to act as the subjects in his portraiture.
Manipulating those photos digitally, Skottie transforms them into something that evokes a poignant response, awakens the viewer's imagination, or inspires them. His art has qualities, as well as integrated elements, that give a nod to his more traditional art background of painting, encaustic, pastel, etching, etc. Some older works of his are used for textural elements, digitally as filters or for layering, and as a way to add depth to an otherwise two dimensional work. It is this synergy of techniques that makes his work unique, emotional and thought provoking.
Skottie is an emerging artist and has already been recognized in both regional and global art shows. He’s also donated work for fundraising art auctions for non-profits and has done commissioned works for collectors. In January of this year, Skottie was recognized as a “Change-Maker” by VoyageAustin Magazine and profiled as one of their “Stories That Inspire”, for his career journey and digital artwork.
He has worked on several collaborative pieces with other emerging artists across the globe, and is often inspired by current events and his sympathetic reaction to xenophobia, bigotry and injustice. Being an out and proud gay man, he has experienced prejudice, bullying, and worse in his life, and tends to bond with the misfits of our world. He’s spent a lifetime working with diversity, equity and inclusion-related causes and non-profits, and that exposure to those marginalized in society, is evident is his work. There are complex stories behind many of his portrait subjects, many of whom have been stigmatized, disenfranchised, or suffered great abuse or pain at one time or another, and there are haunting echoes of those hardships perceptible in their portraits.
SHOWS, AWARDS & COMMISSIONS
Gallerium Art Exhibitions & The Book of Arts Publication
Femina [Woman] - 2022 (Exhibition and Publication) - Selected for being showcased in Femina international online group exhibition for International Women's Day, March 08, 2022, and published in The Book of Arts: Femina in Spring 2022.
Artwork: Joan the Maiden
Solo Show at Slackers Brewing Co., Austin, Texas
Featured Artist for February 2022, 40 works shown
Cover Art Commission for a two book Sci-Fi novel by Mark Wojcik, January 2022
BIAFARIN (Biafarin International Online Exhibition)
Nov-2021 To 15-Dec-2021 - Invited - Biafarin International smart online group exhibition in 2021 - selected for showcasing, published and circulated online in The Book of Arts: Biafarin Awards 2021 publication, Carlotta | Forever Elegant - Digital Arts
LIGHT, SPACE & TIME ONLINE GALLERY
July 2021 - 8th Place - “555 Special” Art Exhibition June Summer 2021 Dream Destination
June 2021 - One of 12 finalists of the recent 18th “Solo Art Series” Art Competition, awarded an Artist Showcase Feature of 5 works:
April 2021 - Special Merit – 11th Botanicals Art Exhibition, Overall Category, Red Rocks & Chrysanthemums
April 2021 - 11th Figurative Art Exhibition, Special Merit, Overall Category, Lariat | Take a Chance
April 2021 - 4th Place - 11th Figurative Art Exhibition, Photography & Digital Category, Yumi | Stop The Hate
April 2021 - Special Merit – 11th Figurative Art Exhibition, Overall Category. Belinda | Blonde Ambition
March 2021 - Special Recognition – 12th Abstracts Art Exhibition, Overall Category, Purple Rain
June 2019 - Special Mention - “555 Special” Art Exhibition – Photography & Digital - Daisy | Floral Filigree
April 2019 - 5th Place – Figurative Art Exhibition 2019 – Overall Category – Dedrik | I’m So Sorry
April 2019 - 3rd Place – Figurative Art Exhibition 2019 – Photography & Digital Category – Dedrik | I’m So Sorry
March 2019 - Special Recognition - Abstracts Art Exhibition 2019 – Photography & Digital Category - Abstract Leonurus - 3
ROUND ROCK ARTS, Round Rock, Texas
Sept 2019 - Round Rock Arts Fall Show (Juried) Imagine A Different Outcome
ART EROTICA, Austin, Texas
May 2019 - Art Erotica 2017 Art Show & Silent Auction
Juror’s Pick - So Close
May 2018 - Art Erotica 2017 Art Show & Silent Auction
May 2017 - Art Erotica 2017 Art Show & Silent Auction
April 2016 - Art Erotica 2017 Art Show & Silent Auction
Juror’s Pick - Catch This - A Digital Selfie Experiment (Sold - Not Available)
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