Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott VanderVoort.
Hi Scott, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well, it took a pandemic to free myself from my old self to arrive at my new self.
I have always been creative and artistic coming off of 20 + years in the design and academic industries I was left me a bit empty. I was getting tired of clients never choosing the most dynamic and exciting solutions to my classrooms leaving me drained of all my energy. There was no time for me.
Prior to the pandemic as a family, we decided to live abroad and share a slice of the world with our son that was completely different.
We went from one island and its concrete jungle vibe to another island with a real jungle vibe. The island of Bali would be where we called home for two years. My son attended the Green School Bali, and I closed my design studio and took a sabbatical from my academic work.
Bali gave us time and space something New York had always stolen from us. The new pattern and lifestyle changes presented so much to us and particularly for me it would be the turning point for my new artistic practice to take flight.
I began sculpting and gathering found materials and repositioning those objects into ideas which opened new pathways for my visual and artistic self. Fast forward we return to NYC (where my son wanted to finish his last two years of high school). I floated back and forth still to Bali to consult with his previous school’s art ed curriculum and to meet back with my Balinese partners in making and carving objects with me.
The pandemic would end my in-person experience and travel back and forth to Bali. Heartbroken and sad, I work endlessly using Whatapp to communicate and finish some stone carving projects. After six months of communicating with hand drawings, models, and videos we shipped our first series of sculptures back to NYC.
In the meantime, since I was away from the source of my limestone I started painting. Painting the ideas that I would later carve in stone. A year full of painting just black and white would allow me a new freedom of exploration in painting as a tool to discover or uncover my sculptural ideas.
I have now launched ScottVanderVoort Studio and I have just recently shown my paintings and sculptures in a solo exhibition at ArtCake in April 2022.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing is smooth or runs smoothly except the surface of my limestone sculptures.
In my new process of art-making come the layers of my studio administrative tasks that cripple me, but I’ve realized I needed to become an expert at this in order for my art practice to grow and flourish.
My biggest struggle is staying focused on one idea. This is also why I created an alphabet of shapes and forms that make up a visual language that uses only and in a very specific way to tailor the final presentation of the ideas.
Keeping it cohesive and relatable.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an artist. I have created a visual language that is all my own from which I process and make paintings and sculptural ideas.
I am most proud of the night of the opening reception where my son (without me knowing) was introducing himself to strangers, welcomed them in, discussed the work, sounding very proud of his father. This is and will be my proudest moment. Show your child to take risks in life, put yourself out there, and fly and realize your dreams, this is my greatest moment.
This is the backbone of what’s driving my future works and my career as an artist, to inspire others and help share the accessibility of the creative spirit that is within us all.
What matters most to you?
Sharing and empowering others through my art-making process.
Connecting to oneself and expressing and sharing that self with the world is a miracle and a magic gift of life.
We should all take part in that process, I want to help lead that way as an example.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.scottvandervoortstudio.com
- Instagram: @scottvandervoortstudio
- Facebook: Scott VanderVoort
Image Credits
Charles Roussel
