We recently connected with Pat Scull and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Pat, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

As a lifelong artist, there are often occurrences that change the trajectory of what and how to create. Being an artist for the last few years with the pandemic in full swing has been challenging. Although a lot of us do spend many hours alone pursuing our art, we also present our work to the public, meet with fellow artists, teach, and travel to do these things. All of this came to a screeching halt as the world population was forced to isolate. Alone in my studio, I decided to start a new project that would express my feelings of suspension or interruption during this time of isolation. 

During the pandemic, a graphic ominous virus image was constantly being projected with every newscast. I had visited a natural science museum a few years prior and had taken photos of fossils, crystals, dinosaur bones, the remains of insects, and other interesting specimens. Looking through my photos from the museum again, I thought I would make paintings and sculptures that layered my photos of ancient objects together in ways that emphasized the sense of helplessness and foreboding in the same way that was being projected by the ominous virus image.   The power of this tiny but ancient invader called “virus” was becoming permanently fixed in our collective human psyche.

Pat, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

To start, I went to Carnegie Mellon University to study painting mainly because I liked Elaine de Kooning who taught there for a while.  Unfortunately, she had moved on before I arrived. My mother encouraged me in my choice because she thought I might find a good husband since it was also a school of engineers.  Engineers had good jobs, they were steady, dependable and worked 9-5. So she thought. That was how a lot of mothers thought in  those days. Or at least mine did.

Instead, when I graduated, I headed to NYC to become a “famous” artist. My first job was working for a television production company. I would flow to work each day caught up in a swarm of people. Bus to the ferry then subway to midtown. It took me an hour and a half. This is where I remember standing still and feeling the flow meld around me like I was a rock in some watery current. I looked at the masses of people hurrying to their jobs and me holding my small portfolio in my hand. I had this feeling of how insignificant I was.  Being an artist of some stature might be a little harder than I thought. 

That was the beginning of the struggle of being an artist. You make work, you present it, you try to make what you feel, the passion that you have for creating, shine through. You sell things, you don’t sell things. You keep going. You explore every process just because you are curious. After many years, all these things that you have found through this exploration begin to come together into your own iconography and imagery. People respond to this. And Fame? Not so important anymore.  I still feel like that small person standing still as I observe the flow of humanity around me. But that small portfolio that I once held in my hand in NYC has become a large body of work.  This is the thing that continues to be exciting.  

Have you ever had to pivot?

Midway through my artistic career, our house and my studio were damaged by a hurricane. We had to move out for about a year until the house was repaired. It was the beginning of all the storm damage that is occurring now in our country it seems. I had no place to work.

A friend and I took a tour of studios of notable ceramic artist in our area and after the visits I decided to try working with ceramics. I found a community center that offered clay classes and began working in ceramics for about a year there which led to me purchasing my own kiln and plunging into the study of glazes. I was still painting in the living room of our rental house and continued to be represented by a gallery in my town, but another friend introduced me to the American Craft Council shows and I began showing my ceramics through these shows in Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Baltimore.

After many years of participating in these ACC shows I also was able to jury into the Smithsonian Craft show in Washington DC. Another highlight was that I was invited to be part of an exhibition Handcrafted, North Carolina Clay at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum. Shortly after that I was chosen to participate in the Mint Museum Pottery Market Invitational in Charlotte and through a purchase award, one of my ceramic pieces is now part of their permanent collection. After the gallery that represented my work for twenty years closed, I was lucky to be included in an artist collective, CMAC in Raleigh, NC, where I recently showed my paintings and ceramics in a solo show.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist is challenging in that you must be fairly disciplined to continue to work each day without distraction. But the wonder of being able to think of an idea, work out the mechanics of this idea, and then bring your creation to fruition is a joy. To share this visual arts process with others through showing your work and through discussion is also invaluable and a wonderful part of an artistic career.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.patscull.com
• Facebook: Pat Scull Art Works