A black and white watercolor of an aluminum step ladder with a pillow resting at its base.

Scott Espeseth

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My works are inspired by chance encounters with objects, spaces, or events that trigger moments of clarity, where they suddenly appear to be intensely strange, or intensely beautiful. I attempt to recreate these moments using the means at my disposal. I may work from direct observation on-site, or try to stage the moment in my studio. I may use photographic references or copious physical measurements in an attempt to capture some essential quality of my subject. These various processes inevitably introduce distortions, and create space for memory and fantasy to insert themselves. My subconscious seems to be trying to tell me something through the choices I make in the studio, and I watch themes emerge, of memory, loss, change, and the fantastic. This process took shape in the early 2000s when I began to make small-scale drawings in graphite. I consistently work with a single medium, in monochrome. A quality of directness and transparency is important to me. I want to convey that I am faithful in recording my process, and not putting on a show with bells and whistles. Since 2016 I have been working in black and white watercolor.  Watercolor pushes back on my obsessive tendencies, requiring me to make compromises, and not lose the forest for the trees. My early drawings served as a kind of diary in which the spaces I encountered in daily life contained omens of dark times to come. I have moved through different bodies of work over time, but I have consistently sought a clairvoyant quality in my works, as though an unseen intelligence is trying to get my attention. Through the process of careful setup and sustained looking, measuring, and drawing, I find a new clarity in the act of making.