Scott Eakin

STATEMENT

 

I come from a family of farmers, builders, mechanics, sewers, knitters and musicians. We are deeply grounded in the material world. It is my nature to attempt to understand the order of things, and how to put them to use. Understanding through observation and active manipulation of materials is my approach to making a painting.

 

Much like building a structure (my father was a home builder), a plan sets the basic format and layout of the painting. After the plan is established, choice of colors, tone, size and "construction" of elements is what creates the image. I spent hours watching my mother knit or sew. The accumulation of stitches is echoed in the accumulation of elements that comprise each painting. No doubt my paintings are inspired by contributions of each of my parents.

 

This work echoes other activities that have been a part of my life at one time or another: the orderly work of plowing or mowing a field, the work of understanding and repairing a machine or improvising a melody over a chord progression.

 

The pictorial elements are reduced to color and simple geometric shapes. Composition is based on the grid but I let the rigid order slip and get loose. Individual components are simple yet the accumulation of bits creates a complex image. The process has something in common with collage and with nature, where simple components, cells, crystals and other elemental forms create fantastically complex organisms and biosystems. For me these paintings are a quotation of the complexity and beauty found in the material world.

 

 

EXHIBITION HISTORY AND COLLECITONS

 

2016 A Sense of Place, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA Juror Michael Rooks

2016 31st Annual Tallahassee International, Florida State University Museum of FIne Arts, Tallahassee FL

2016 New Horizons, LuminArte Fine Art, Dallas, Texas

2016 Fine Arts Exhibition of the Decatur Arts Festival, Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA, City of Decatur Purchase Award, Jurors Dr. Jerry Cullum, Timothy Flowers, Karen Comer Lowe

2016 Georgia Artist Juried Exhibition, Abernathy Arts Center, Sandy Springs, Georgia, Second Place award.

2016 Southworks, Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, Watkinsville, GA Juror Stephen Wicks

2016 Dogwood Regional Fine Arts Exhibition, Knoxville Art and Cultural Alliance,

Knoxville, TN Juror Nandini Makrandi, Honorable Mention

2015 Little Things Mean A Lot, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA Curator Marianne Lambert

2015 August Geometry, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2015 Sense of Place, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA Juror Annette Cone-Skelton

2015 Metro Montage, Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA

2014 Stratum Substratum, solo show, Modern Now Gallery, Atlanta GA

2014 Basel House, Winwood, FL

2014 Solo Show, Trinity Mercantile and Design, Decatur, GA

2013 Little Things Mean A Lot, Swan Coach House Gallery

Curator Marianne Lambert

2013 Decatur Arts Festival Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA, Honorable Mention

2013 Georgia Artists Juried Exhibition, Abernathy Arts Center, Sandy Springs, GA, Honorable Mention, Juror Anne Lambert Tracht

2013 Solo Show, Trinity Mercantile and Design, Decatur, GA

2012 Small Works Juried Exhibition, Middle Tennessee State University

2011 Georgia Artists Juried Exhibition, Abernathy Arts Center Jurors Stephanie Smith, Rick Berman

2009 Halpert Biennial, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC Juror Michael Rooks

2007 Douglas County Arts Juried Exhibition, Douglasville, GA Juror William Eiland

 

 

 

COLLECTIONS

 

City of Decatur Police Department, Beacon Municipal Center, Decatur, GA

TriBridge Residential Atlanta, GA

Shaw Industries, Dalton, GA

City of Decatur permanent collection, Decatur, GA

1010 Midtown Condominiums, Lowes Hotel, Atlanta, GA

Leavens, Strand & Glover LLC, Chicago, IL

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Joanne Mattera Art Blog, August 12, 2015

The Modern Gallerist Art Blog, August Geometry, August 19, 2015

Arts Atlanta, Review: Math is beautiful in quirky “august geometry” at Marcia Wood Gallery, by Jerry Cullum, August 26, 2015