Today we’d like to introduce you to Chloe Scout Nix.
Hi Chloe Scout, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Chloe Scout Nix and I am originally from Waxahachie Texas where I grew up homeschooled living on my family’s horse farm. We used to participate in competitive horse shows, dressage and what not, but then I started dancing and that took over the greater part of my childhood. I am a trained dancer, having focused most of my attention on performing and teaching tap dance. I attended Dallas County Community College then transferred to Southern Methodist University where I graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts and a Minor in Art History in 2019. In 2022 I moved to New York to attend graduate school at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where I graduated with a Masters of Photography in 2024.
I am an artist, photographer, performer, writer, daughter, sister, friend, pisces, reader of books, watcher of films, I enjoy walking, listening to music, partaking in podcasts that talk about bad movies, collector of shoes and clothing in varying shades of black, cryer, subway taker, swimmer, floater, I love flowers and socks and people who give me flowers and socks, I love carpet and sometimes cigarettes, I like people who smell like cigarettes and men who play instruments and dont like me all that much, I love pickles but hate cornichons, and I am happy when I can lay on the flat hardwood floors of my apartment.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not always been a smooth road for me. I am a very emotional person but can also be very reserved, which has caused me to really struggle with feelings of loneliness. Which I think is why that topic of loneliness is such a large part of my artwork, and kinda rectifying these feelings and aspects of my life through that work. I have a lot of hate for myself and my brain and my body that I had to, and am still trying to, work through. The dance world though very important to me and who I am kinda broke my spirit as a person and made me be extremely self critical of myself and how I come across to people. Though now I have really found peace in art making. Somehow that is an area of my life where I feel very confident, calm, and in control. I have kinda created a separation between what I call “human Chloe” and “artist Chloe”. I have separated their goals and their problems and that has really helped me keep focus and not bring any of my real life frustrations or hardships into my own work.
I will say that I have been very lucky to have had parents who have supported my decision to dedicate myself to my art, because without that I don’t think I would have survived this far.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have been making self portraits for the past few years that explore ideas of intimacy and togetherness with myself at the center and I think that really is the core of my practice right now. Everything really starts from there and the outside work I do, such as writing and sound pieces, are used to emphasize and fill in the gaps my images leave with the viewer. I am very proud of the work I have made the last year and proud of myself for really delving into these intense feelings I have been having and using those as the baseline for the work. I think my process is something that sets me apart. My photography sessions are incredibly vague when it comes to instructing my subjects on what to do. Often I will kinda place us somewhat in the area or pose I had in mind, then we wiggle and move and play for a bit until I feel that the shot is over. Nothing is set in stone and I don’t like to be too firm with the people I am posing with. I like to create the environment and line everything up in a way that forces who I am photographing with to kinda fill in those gaps I leave empty. I think something really interesting comes out of that vagueness.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Movies are a giant part of my life. I actually do these fun kinda movie ratting on my instagram where I give a 1-10 rating of every new movie I see and sometimes a little blurb about what I did or did not enjoy. It has been really fun to see peoples responses cause it has become a lil thing now associated with me. Ira Sachs’s “Passages” is one of my favorite movies and has been a huge surge of inspiration for me in the past year. Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” is one of my all time favorite films and always makes me this intense but warm homesickness because of how much it makes me think of my father and the day we went to see it together. I also love to read fiction in particular. Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, The Employees, by Olga Ravn, The Stranger by Albert Camus, and Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova were a few of my favorites I read this past year.
Music is always playing while I am working. I never work in silence. Usually Mac Demarco.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chloescoutnix.com
- Instagram: cscout
- Other: https://vimeo.com/chloescoutnix
Image Credits
all mine Chloe Scout Nix