From Scott Okin

 

BIO

Scott Okin is originally from Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He has worked and lived in the Chicago area since 1980. Scott graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and earned a Certificate of Art Education, K-12. His work has been included in exhibitions and collections throughout the Midwest. 

 

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I leverage the grid to create and explore visual tension, and to challenge and engage the viewer. The use of color, excessive layering, and mark making energize and add movement within the grid, which is theoretically static. Works may include lyrics to songs, poems, psalms, prayers, and fragments of scripture that blur what the grid represents, order and control. Letters, phrases, idioms, and sentences become the marks, in movement that flow above and through the underlying grid.

 

PROCESS

I have replaced the use of traditional brushes and painting techniques with hot glue guns and alphabet sponges. Each alphabetic element is drawn, glued, painted, and altered, throughout the extensive process of layering and mark making. For me, the process becomes an exercise in controlling the narrative and crossing boundaries.  

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