Orchid interviews Scott Schuldt

Scott Schuldt in his canoe.

Hello Everyone.  My name is Orchid and I am the guest blogger today on Art Talk.  I recently had a nice visit with Scott Schuldt, a Seattle based artist working in a variety of media including, but not limited to, beadwork, mapmaking and video.

Orchid: "Hello, Scott.  It is a pleasure to meet you.  Thank you for taking the time to share some of your thoughts with us and allow us a glimpse into your world.

So, let's begin.

Will you tell the audience what it is you do?"

Scott: "It turns out that I am a self-taught interdisciplinary artist.  It took me a few years to figure out that is what I do.  So, I bring a lot of content-science, history, politics and nature into my work."

 Orchid: "Why/how/when did this all come about?"

#1 of 3 panels; Scott Schuldt

Scott:  It's actually a rather natural thing for me to do.  I am fairly well balanced in a left brain - right brain context and I am very comfortable going to either side.  I have a degree in mechanical engineering, so my math and science skills are up to snuff enough that I can plow through data and technical papers, but being a jack-of-all-trades in my core, it would be hard (dull) for me to specialize too much.  I've learned to tap into the emotional side as well.  That is when the wild ride happens...I love the feeling of hanging on for dear life to an artwork in progress that just has a mind of it's own."

#2 of 3 panels; Scott Schuldt

Orchid: "Why beads?"

Scott: Pure chance,  I was studying native american art forms and found that the art historian's texts made more sense when I was actually making the work - I's started with NW coastal carving, and when I moved on to look at some apparel designs, I decided to sew some beads so that I would understand what the various stitches were... I actually don't get all that worked up about beads, they're kind of like paint to me."

Orchid: "Why canoes?  

#3 of 3 panels; Scott Schuldt

Scott:  "I grew up in Minnesota.  I always liked canoeing, but when I got to be 17 I started mountain climbing and did that more or less until I moved to Seattle (1985).  I'd moved out of my climbing social circle and found it not so easy to find someone that I both liked and that climbed at my level.  Instead, I bike raced for several years, built some sea kayaks, got bored with them.  Then, 3 years ago I bought a used canoe,  Got in and loved it.  Loved everything about it.  To me, there's no better view than there is when I am kneeling in my canoe.  And, more than probably any other vessel, it is the jack-of-all-trades, which is who/what I am also.  It's easy to jump in and out of, easy to carry, fairly seaworthy (but not so much as a sea kayak), great for paddling in the shallows and in tight narrow places.  You can carry some substantial stuff in one, also.  I've hauled out of the marsh, a 100+ lb truck tire and a 150 lb block of foam.  it's also a great boat to sit in and write or photograph, explore, etc.  My canoe has about 360 trips on it in the last 3 years."

'The View From the Canoe

Orchid:  "Why video?"

Scott: "Pure chance again.  I was recording my daily trips, because I was making observations on a daily basis that I thought might have some value to somebody at some time, especially with climate change.  So I started a blog, started shooting lots of photographs,  Then, I wrote my daily piece in the canoe.. and that was better than anything I'd yet written.  So, most everything is written in the canoe.  Then, I decided to podcast a couple of good pieces,,, and then it made sense to make those into slideshows.. and my friends said, "those are great, but you need some video."  So, I shoot video.  They were right, of course.  I'm also doing photography, hand-surveyed and hand-drawn maps, a series of technical engineering drawings of beaver structures, and I'm up to about 20 hand -carved functional art canoe paddles."

Installation of the paddles at
Maude Kerns Art Center

Orchid:  'Will you tell us a little about your thought process?"

Scott:  "Everything is connected.  You know, you spend most of your educational life having subjects neatly compartmentalized.  It's math only, history only, art only, science only.. Yet, the real world requires a person to know history, be able to metabolize creative endeavors, be able to forecast a budget, build things, understand a little about nature. There aren't any boundaries.  I really like finding those complexities and getting them into a piece of art.  When I'm on some art thing,,, I collect and amass images and facts.  I just keep going - following the subject wherever it is going until I have so much information that I can't help but to make and finish a piece of art."

'The Outpost'  Scott Schuldt

Orchid:  "How's this art life working for you?"

Scott:  "I'm happy, very happy.  I quit my engineering career in 2005 because the company I worked for decided to maximize profits by making a crap product.  The stress of that was killing me.  I got beaten up pretty bad trying to save their knuckleheaded asses.  I've had great support from my wife and we've grown closer since.  I'm not a good salesman, so I don't sell much.  Most of my sales have been to public art collections, Seattle and 4Culture, and the Museum of Arts and Design bought a piece,  Seattle has been a tough place to get started in. It's a lot of sales galleries, a lot of don't call us, we'll call you..  and, most art people haven't seen beadwork like mine anywhere, ever. so they don't get it until they see it in person.  Last year I did a 60 piece solo show - they promoted my photographs mostly, until they saw the beadwork in person.  It was great fun.  I saw some people crying while looking at the beadwork... it doesn't get better than that."

Anorak, 2011;
Scott Schuldt

Orchid:  "Where do you see this going?"

Scott:  I don't work that way.  Someone, who I hadn't seen in 5 or 6 years, was interested in my transition from engineer to artist and asked how that came about.  I replied, "I don't know, I just go where I end up."  ..He caught it.. that line came right out of my subconscious and, of course, what I said is backwards.  Most people end up wher they are going.  So, I had no idea where the canoeing thing was going, except I trusted that it would go someplace,, and I knew I would be okay to go there.  I finally have enough stuff that it looks like I knew what I was doing.  I can't tell you how much trouble I had when I was doing aptitude tests when I was 15 - the teachers just kept harping about 'having a plan' and I just couldn't figure out why anyone would want to live their life following a plan.  I just do the best that I can at whatever I am doing.  It does make it hard for me towrite proposals and grants - I have a hard time bullshitting myself.. making it look like I have a plan.  The grant process thing in art is very contradictory to the way that most artists work.  If it wasn't for the money, artist just wouldn't tolerate that nonsense."

"Calving Season" 2006
Scott Schuldt 

Orchid: "One last question, Scott.  If you had to choose another profession, what would it be?"

Scott:  "I don't even like to think about that.  I probably would just go off of the grid instead."




View from the Canoe
Scott's website

Scott's Art News

Signal Fire Residency

For R

'Out in the Field' oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

Out in the field we sit.

It is a place where

watching grey clouds slide by

while breathing summer sounds

is a good thing.

Livin' low

'Livin' Low'  18x18" oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

I seem to be in 'lowlife' mode.

I've always been partial to the underdog

all those under-appreciated irritants.

Let's continue our talk about barnacles, for example.  They are really not appreciated on manmade things and seem to be not good for much of anything.  

Whales appreciate them, though, because they clean the wounds on the whale's body, their own personal health care practitioners.

Then there is the little known fact that scientists are now making use of the barnacle's ability to absorb concentrations of heavy metals from the water.
One could say they are victims of service to their country. Hail the lowly barnacle!

Maybe sometime in the near future we will be appreciating those barnacles more than we now know.





postscript:

Thids doesn't like her name so she is changing it to Orchid.

Today is a partial solar eclipse.

Progress

Thids in progress..

Thids' bezels are soldered now.  She can, technically, wear clothes but there really is more to do.  I think the next step will be to get rid of the excess.

Thids is dying to interview for the guest blogger position.  Who knew?  She mentioned how she's always wanted have a radio show or to own her own station.
That tells me something.

Interviews won't begin until the characters are finished.

I forewarned her,  "no politics".
She asked,  "Is being an advocate for the earth political?"

Aliens

'Barnacles' 18x18" oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

The lowly barnacles 

We see them everywhere around here, on rocks, piling, boats.  The little aliens that we don't think twice about.  

The barnacle attaches to hard surfaces with the top of it's head 

to live there forever.  

When the water rises,  the  dancing feather 'legs' come out and wave the food in.

Amazing if you think about it.  

A listen

'Rockweed' 18x18" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner

I lean into the piling.  It is covered with a banquet of life: seaweed and kelp, barnacles, mussels and billions of creatures, right down to the most basic, who call this spot home.  I close my eyes and, with my ear close, listen to the sound of it: Water sounds, bubble sounds, scurries, tiny scratches,  the sound of an eagle, the lapping of water.

It is a city, a country, the world,  a universe.

Altered internet image; author unknown

Flex

'Flex' 18x18" oil pastel;  Kathleen Faulkner



Mussel is a bivalve and my favorite to eat.

I first encountered the lovely mussel while living in Astoria, Oregon. We would drive to the ocean whenever possible, only a short jaunt away,  build a bonfire  and collect ocean mussels.  

Later, with wine and song, we'd eat those mussels and have brilliant dreams later in the night.  

The key to great steamed mussels is to not overcook them: three or four minutes at the most. 

Place cleaned mussels in a pan with garlic or onion, wine, salt, pepper.. cover and shake.  When mussels open, they are done.  Serve with large portions of bread for sopping up the broth and generous amounts of wine to bring out the song. 

I live next to a Universe

'Salish Neighbor' 18x18" oil pastel;
Kathleen Faulkner

Walking to the water's edge I spy the kelp and barnacles.  The water ripples gently.  Cormorants sit on pilings.

Just like where I stand, there is a whole world under that rippled surface,  a universe.  In the ocean world there are areas that have never been seen and species yet to discover..

Here on the Salish everything has pretty much been discovered, scientifically, at least that's the thought.  

Here on the Salish I discover something new everyday and, as I look out over the water, I think about that universe below and that I've never been there.

Variations on a theme

Variations on a Theme Neckpiece 18" fine and
sterling silver, beach rocks; Kathleen Faulkner

Silver is close to $50 an ounce, spot.  Spot is not the price I pay for silver. I buy sheet or wire so the refining fee brings the cost up toward $60.  This time last year spot was around $18.

This neckpiece is made from remnants and parts of other things.  I'm using up my bits and pieces hoping the price of silver will go down.

I'm focusing more on painting these days.  It is the medium I prefer and, at this rate, I may be priced out of the jewelry profession.  The good news about paintings is that, if materials get too expensive there are all kinds of things one can use to make marks.. charcoal, dirt, berries.. I even have a jar of dried octopus ink.  I've used it before and it is a beautiful sepia color.
We artist love our materials.  I've been stockpiling art supplies for years so it would take quite awhile to use it all up.

Change is a good thing.  I'm going with the flow.   We'll see where it all leads..

An original

Necklace,  wallpaper, sterling silver, elastic;
Kathleen Faulkner

During the last several months I've been working more with found and recycled materials.  The wallpaper I used for this necklace is something I found at a garage sale several years ago.  I had no use for it at the time and wondered why I was buying it aside from the fact that it was beautiful.  It sat folded up in a corner of my workroom waiting for the day.

In a previous post I mentioned that the original material of paper beads was wallpaper.  

So, why not make an original?

Auction for the Artist

Matzke Fine Art Gallery
Presents the Second Annual Art Auction for the Artist
Saturday, April 23rd.
Preview April 16th, 17th and 23rd from 11am to 5pm
Bidding starts promptly at 6pm

'Landscape' brooch, sterling silver, paper,
colored pencil, mica; Kathleen Faulkner

'Webster's Woods' 17x17" oil and soft
pastel, charcoal; Kathleen Faulkner

With over 50 artists, this live auction has something for everyone:  Great art, wonderful conversation, tasty bites and an amazing sculpture park and gallery.  

Please support the Arts, Artists and this event.

Homonymy

'The Basics' 16x16" oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

Basics: essential facts or principles of a subject or skill 

Please double click on the video to get the whole image.

Basic: common to or required by everyone, primary and ineradicable and inalienable..

as in human rights

something that seems to be missing in China.

Evergreen

'Evergreent'  17x35" oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

Lately I wonder if Spring will ever arrive.  Waiting for the late one:  I've always thought lateness a sign of rudeness

I wake to rain. 

Things have been intense lately..  friends on the skids,  politics, Japan. 

I need to be in the woods and the good news is that I have this day.  

I am grateful for the rain that offers what I need:
a cloak of invisibility, solitude and a feeling of softness not available on a sunny day. 

Someday, when the rest of the world has dried up and blown away, we will be thankful for this gift.

Gallery Row

looking west toward the islands;
Kathleen Faulkner

While traveling to Edison I took note of the flooded fields.  It had been raining heavily for days.
Other places might envy us for being blessed with an abundance of water, a resource that is becoming like gold, but we were sick of it.

Abundance is usually a good thing.  When it has been raining so much, it's hard to see it that way.

Shortly then,  I arrived in Edison and started thinking about the abundance this town has:  five venues for art in this block long town.. and an artist behind just about every tree, rock, building.

Edison Eye Gallery

The Edison Eye Gallery is the Grampa of them all, the Elder, the Big kid.  Dana has been running this gallery for many years.. lots of history.. many stories.. absolute magic and, speaking of:

The first show of the year, 'Friends of the Fish' will open April 16th with over 60 artists participating.  This is in conjunction with the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is going to be Special.. 

Brick Gallery

The Brick Gallery, a new addition to Edison, is located across the street from the Eye.  Small yet satisfying, this month's show consists of Photographs by John Sedgwick and Jason Wardenburg; Multi media collages by Elise Lazzari; Felt hats and scarves by July Andre; Jewelry, pottery and dolls by Sue Andre; Pottery by Chris Wardenburg-Skinner. Hours: 12:00-5:00, Saturdays and Sundays.

Shop Curator

Next stop is Shop Curator, a real treat for those looking for something 'different'.  David has a knack for finding rare NW art and curiosities.  He also shows his own inspired work.  Although finding him open can sometimes be a challenge, it is worth the effort. 

Smith & Vallee Gallery

Across the street is Smith & Vallee.  This month's show is 'Re-Art'.  There are over 20 artists participating with art made from salvage.  This show is in conjunction with Re-Store . It's a fun show that's worth a visit. The gallery (and what a beautiful gallery) is open Thursday through Sunday, 11:00-5:00.  

The last stop is the newest: Three Ravens , located two doors down from Smith & Valley and showing a selection of international artists.  We welcome this new addition and look forward to many more openings in the future.. 

Some might say that poor little Edison is getting too much attention and it's worrisome.  I say, the more the merrier.  We artists need all the help we can get and more galleries help that happen.   Fortunately for Edison, there is no room for new housing growth.. that should ease some angst.

Slough looking west from behind the Edison Eye;
Kathleen Faulkner

Here's wishing All the artists and All the galleries much success.
Cheers!

Geology lesson

'Rialto Beach' series; oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

'The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.'   Bernard Shaw

'A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.'  Andy Goldsworthy

'The finest workers of stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.'   Henry David Thoreau

'But which is the stone that supports the bridge?'   Kublal Khan

'Leave no stone unturned.'   Euripides 

'The poets' scrolls will outlive monuments of stone. Genius survives, all else is claimed by death.'  Edmund Spenser 

'Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.'  Frances Bacon

'Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?'   William Butler Yeats

'What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.'   Pericles

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'  

  Richard Lovelace

'The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.'  Sigmund Freud

'Never treat anything you do as a stepping stone.  Do it fully, and follow it completely.'  Mira Nair

'Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.'   Ansel Adams 

Bone food

Earrings; sterling and fine silver, calcite; Kathleen Faulkner

Once upon a time, while hiking up in the northern New Mexico mountains,  we came upon an old calcite mine.  It had been closed for years but the rock was scattered everywhere.  The sun, filtering through the trees, and a slight breeze made those rocks sparkle.

I felt like I was in a dream as I sat on the ground picking up pieces of rock.  The day, the sun, the smells of pine and pinion.. and all these beautiful stones sparkling like diamonds..

Calcite comes from the shells of dead marine organisms.  That means that at one time, long ago, that area in Northern New Mexico was ocean.  

Many things have come from those bones of the dead:  cement, limestone, marble, medicines, fertilizer and the most amazing of all:  lenses.  The now extinct trilobite used clear calcite crystals to form the lenses of their eyes.  

All that and more from shells.  

Imagine what we haven't discovered yet..  

what we don't know..

Paper Trail

'Paper Trail' necklace, 60" magazine paper,
sterling silver,  elastic; Kathleen Faulkner

Paper beads became popular in Victorian times.  Women in England would get together and make   beads by rolling wallpaper on knitting needles. They would then string the beads on long pieces of yarn to use as room dividers.  

As a child I would make paper beads for bracelets and necklaces. When thinking about what I would do for this show, I remembered those paper beads I used to make and thought it would be fun to revisit. 

This necklace, as well as 'Message in a Bottle', will be part of 'Re-Art' at Smith & Vallee Gallery, in conjunction with the Re-Store. The show runs from April 2nd through April 30th.

This should be a great show.  I'm looking forward to it.

For Japan

Please remember our Japanese friends who need our help:     

Artists for Japan  

Something's fishy

"Smelt" oil pastel, ink; 17x17" Kathleen Faulkner

The Edison Eye Gallery, in conjunction with Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, presents 

'Friends of the Fish'.  

The show runs from April 16th through May 1st with the usual 

wonderful opening on April 16th, 6 till 10pm.  

I heard from a very reliable source that this show is going to be Good!  60 artists are participating and Dana is in a very good mood.  

'Edison Eye' photo; Kathleen Faulkner

An important message:

'Message in a Bottle' 36' found objects, poem by Gary
Snyder, sterling silver; Kathleen Faulkner

An owl winks in the shadows

A lizard lifts on tiptoe, breathing hard

Young male sparrow stretches up his neck,

big head, watching-

The grasses are working in the sun. Turn it green.

Turn it sweet.  That we may eat.

Grow our meat.

Brazil says "sovereign use of Natural Resources"

Thirty thousand kinds of unknown plants.

The living actual people of the jungle

sold and tortured'

And a robot in a suit who peddles a delusion called 'Brazil"

can speak for them?

The whales turn and glisten plunge

and sound and rise again

Hanging over subtly darkening deeps

Flowing like breathing planets 

in the sparkling whorls of 

living light-

And Japan quibbles for words on

what kinds of whales they can kill?

A once-great Buddhist nation

dribbles methyl mercury 

like gonorrhea

in the sea.

Pere David's Deer, the Elaphure,

lived in the tule marshes of the Yellow River

Two thousand years ago - and lost it's home to rice-

The forests of Lo - yang were logged and all the silt and

sand flowed down,

and gone, by 1200 AD -

Wild geese hatched out of Siberia

head south over basins of the Yang, the Huang,

What we call "China"

On flyways they have used a million years.

Ah China, where are the tigers, the wild boars,

the monkeys,

like the snows of yesteryear

Gone in a mist, a flash, and the dry hard ground

Is parking space for fifty thousand trucks.

Is man most precious of all things?

- then let us love him, and his brothers, all those

Fading living beings -

North America, Turtle Island, taken by invaders

who wage war around the world.

May ants, may abalone, otters, wolves and elk

Rise! and pull away their giving 

from the robot nations.

Solidarity. The People

Standing Tree People!

Flying Bird People!

Swimming Sea People!

Four-legged, two-legged people!

How can the head-heavy power-hungry politic scientist

Government two-world Capitalist-Imperialist

Third-world Communist paper-shuffling make

non-farmer jet-set bureaucrats

Speak for the green of the leaf? Speak for the soil?

(Ah Margaret Mead... do you sometimes dream of Samoa?)

The robots argue how to parcel out Mother Earth

To last a little longer

like vultures flapping

Belching, gurgling,

near a dying doe.

"In yonder field a slain knight lies-

We'll fly to him and eat his eyes

with a down

derry derry derry down down."

An Owl winks in the shadow

A lizard lifts on tiptoe

breathing hard

The whales turn and glisten

plunge and

Sound, and rise again

Flowing like breathing planets

In the sparkling whorls

Of living light.     

                                                                  'Mother Earth:  Her Whales'

                                                                                     by Gary Snyder

'Life is short, the Art long'

Somewhere between LaConner and Stanwood; Kathleen Faulkner

I started with a plan.  I would visit LaConner first, head over to Camano Island and then, finish the day in Edison.  An afternoon and evening of adventure and visual enjoyment.

As I walked toward the gallery I knew this show would be good.  Looking around at all the images I was reminded of the recipe for a good exhibit:  that the whole equals more than the sum of it's parts.  This small gallery filled with black and white photographs of the art history of the Magic Skagit: very Large and very Powerful.. 

Truly a sight to behold.

As I left I knew I would be back to look again.

Camano Island is long and narrow.  The next gallery I was headed to is at the south end of that island.  I had never been before.  It was a beautiful drive, a Beautiful gallery and a beautiful show.  I felt honored to be a part of this group, showing in this fabulous gallery. 

Wondering around in the sculpture garden, impressed to death, I decided to name the place, "Artland in the Woods". 

It is good to find some magic.

The last call was in Edison.  I love that town.  I always look forward to spending time there.  

The opening was packed, the artwork stunning, the conversation stimulating.   

An unknown,  a 'phantom' as Dana calls him..  a one man show of outrageously good work.  I imagine he won't be unknown for long.. 

It was a good plan.  It worked quite well.  It was one of the best 'art for your soul' days I've had for a long, long time.

Somewhere near Edison; Kathleen Faulkner

Greetings from Birdsville

'The Return' oil pastel; Kathleen Faulkner

The geese have returned:  a highlight of late winter. 

February was a cold, snowy month, the way I used to remember it as a child.  Indians named February's full moon the Snow Moon because of all the snow that would arrive.   It's hard to know if this is unusual now or not.

The eagles are down in the valley waiting for food.  I have seen more birds than ever lately.  Ducks, hawks, eagles, swans, geese, and on and on.

It is a wonderful thing!

Adult and immature eagles near Edison;

Another angle..

Everything is wet, cold and beautiful   It is good to live here.

looking northeast toward Mt Baker..

What's Up?

'Pod' necklace; sterling silver, pods, pigment; Kathleen Faulkner

This necklace is the companion piece to the Pod brooch.  These two pieces will be in the upcoming Northwest Designer Craftsmen show at Matzke Fine Art Gallery opening March 5th from 2pm - 9pm and running through April 10th, 2011.

'Pod' brooch; sterling silver, pods, pigment; Kathleen Faulkner
photo: David Scherrer

Fun Facts

For those of you who feel yourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place:

'Rocks' 36x9" oil pastel;
Kathleen Faulkner

walking along West Beach listening to the waves tumbling the rocks in the surf

it is all constant movement 

nothing stays the same.

Every action has a reaction

'On the Way to Edison' photo; Kathleen Faulkner

I stand in the middle of my studio and hear the world outside.  I am surrounded by manmade objects and materials that, once living, are now dead.

I stand in the middle of a forest and become part of an interaction with an energy that isn't in any house, studio, building except for maybe a barn.  

I stand in the middle of a field and feel that I am a part of it all.  

Observation can be a participatory sport

The favored one

'My Favorite Weed'  photo;  Kathleen Faulkner

I grow in her yard almost everywhere.  I guess that doesn't say much about the state of her yard:  I prefer poor soil, abandoned areas.

In her defense, she grows a fine garden of vegetables and flowers, she allows for wildlife habitat, there is even some grass in the back.  She could pull me out by the roots and that would probably be it.  I think she likes me, though.  Sometimes she comes over and rubs my leaves, she's taken many photos of me.  She lets me grow.  

I have some useful qualities, although I was brought over by the Puritans.

Dipped in tallow my flower stalk can be used as a torch.  Mullein stalks were used in ancient Greece as funeral torches.

I can cure leprosy and, if you have asthma, you can get relief by smoking my leaves. 

A tea made from me is good for catarrh or as a sedative.  

Maybe she keeps me around just in case.

Or maybe my leaves remind her of something 

or someone.

Buddy

'Buddy' woodblock print; Kathleen Faulkner

Crow is another well adapted urban resident that irritates more than it inspires..   

although, in mythology, Crow is highly regarded. 

 

It is always a good idea to be nice to crow.   He never forgets.  

I have a friend that will not go outside when crows are around.  He is continually buzz bombed by them when he's spotted.  He says he doesn't know why but my guess is that he wasn't nice a time or two.