What Scott Saw
An Intimate Look Into the Mind of the San Deigo Artist
By Bart Mendoza

An Intimate Look Into The Mind Of The San Diego Artist - by Bart Mendoza

Somewhere between Mad Scientisi's laboratory and the coolest art gallery ever, sitting in Scott Saw’s Encinitas studio is a blow to the senses. The space is an explosion of color. Not just the paintings, which are stunning to behold up close, but an amazing array of reference materials ranging from Maurice Sendak books to intellectual tomes on string theory. Specimen cases line shelves while tables hold small animal skulls or a stuffed armadillo. But it’s those paintings that keep the eye.

Graduating from SDSU in 1998, the amiable Saw only held his first solo show in 2003 - yesterday by art standards - but in the ensuing time he has quickly evolved into an artist with a unique vision, creating an intense retro-futuristic world that occasionally draws on the macabre but always touches on questions of wonder and whimsy.

As a child Saw was torn between becoming an astronaut and an artist. At first it was a tough call. On the one hand, Saw’s first and middle names were inspired by authentic spacemen. On the other, Saw’s father is also a renowned artist, Jim Saw. NASA’s loss is the art world’s gain.

The younger Saw’s work originally hit the public consciousness in a major way through his first published collection of works, Curtains. Populated by dreamlike scenarios, the works celebrate life and death with an equal sense of innocence and sorrow. “That was stimulated by the death of a loved one,” explains Saw. “It was tough. My family was in such a dark place after that. I wanted to be there for them as much as I could and absorb as much of that (dark) energy. And it just came out in Curtains.”

The rush of creative energy surprised Saw. “In a couple of days I came up with this ‘world’ we lived in. I mean, I couldn’t paint because I was too busy jotting down ideas. Then it took me the next six months to create all the images,” he laughs at the recollection.

The actual work process can be a little intense. “When I’m holding a vision, that’s all I can handle for awhile,” he remarks. “I mean, I almost lose track of everything else. Sometimes I’ll realize that three weeks have gone by and I’ll think, oh my god, I’m behind on all these things. I’m just so engaged I can’t really think about too much else.”

This month Saw unveils a new book, Flipside, with a solo exhibition at Froden Gallery in Santa Monica. In a way, the new collection is the opposite of his first book. It’s filled with joy and youthful exuberance. “This whole series of paintings is about that, about a child coming into our lives,” a beaming Saw explains. “It all started with a painting called ‘Conception.’ This was a vision that my wife and I were both practicing during the conception of our child. We were trying to envision a good soul finding its way into this union, so that’s kind of what started this whole series.” For Saw the happy occasion offered up new philosophical questions. “I started thinking about the other side, like before you come into this body and you’re some sort of spirit or spiritual being. You’re trying to find a portal or inlet, and I was trying to envision what that looks like. I’m trying to say, ‘What does it look like on the other side when you don’t have eyes and it’s just light?’ Or whatever it is. Nobody knows, but I tried to give it a face or a picture.” Saw pauses to sum up the series. “This whole group of paintings is about kind of exploring this existence in the time-space continuum and being a spiritual being in something other than a spiritual body.”

With such personal inspiration in his work it’s only natural that Saw includes himself on canvas occasionally, in a way that would make Hitchcock proud. “I don’t do it in all my paintings, but in the Curtains series I chose to represent myself as a little robot creature,” he admits with a laugh. “In this new series a lot of the images are based on my own childhood images. Now that I’m having a kid I’m really in tune with that.” Staring out of the studio across a large lawn, Saw is effusive. “I just can’t stop going back to all those things I felt as a kid again, some of which I’m going to get to experience once more. Like ‘Oh my god I get to play with bugs in the grass again,’ how cool!”

Oddly, these childhood recollections also tap into the reasons for the small skulls dotting the studio as well as the artwork. “Well, some of them are just cool looking,” he jokes. “But really, the skull is the bone that is left behind that most represents the creature that it was. I found ways to bring some of that idea into my paintings.” Motioning to his painting “Tradition of the Tree Squirrel,” with a floating squirrel skull over a group of people fishing, Saw points out various reference points.

“Its like you go back to when you were a kid and you were fishing. What was always popping out of the bushes? There were all these little squirrels here and there, right? And that was always going on. So this picture shows me, my brother, my mom, my dad, and my grandpa, who is kind of represented by this robot creature. And it’s like that squirrel was popping into the picture even when they were fishing and when they were kids. It’s always been like that, so it’s like tradition.”

At the moment, Saw pays the bills with his own graphics company, allowing time for his artwork. While he hasn’t done any concert poster art, he has worked with a few musicians including Sue Palmer and Bauhaus, designing the latter’s Coachella T-shirt for their recent reunion. Music, in fact, is a major part of Saw’s creative process. “I think music is a wonderful art form,” he remarks. “It’s an important part of my creative process. I listen to stuff that’s kind of spacey and real moody and mellow. Groups like The Album Leaf, Pinback, Blackheart Procession, Sparklehorse, or even Tom Waits, but Mogwai is my number one studio band. It’s just so perfect for making art to, with its instrumental passages and builds.” While he rarely does commercial art, he admits to a particular thrill working on the Bauhaus project. “I’ve been friends with David J for a number of years, he did the introduction to my first book. But this was extra special. I mean, I grew up listening to Bauhaus when I went to sleep every night as a teenager. So I was delighted.” The band must have been delighted as well. The shirt was the festival’s biggest seller.

Saw sees the connection between artists and musicians extended to getting the word out about their craft, with art gallery openings no different than club tours. “Basically, as an artist, you’re touring like a musician,” he notes. “You’ve got to be out there where the eyes are. It’s one thing to have a nice-looking website. You are going to get some attention from that, but really you’ve got to be in the mix like a musician goes on tour. That’s when people notice you.”

Although Saw is sure to be caught up in the promotion of Flipside for the near future, he’s already thinking about the next project. “I want to explore the universe a little bit more,” he says with a mischievous smile. “I’ve got some thoughts. I’m getting into physics. I picture myself as a little particle of dust that’s enormous and microscopic at the same time. I’m so fascinated with that whole time-space continuum that I want to explore that.”

While Saw certainly hopes to make an impact with his dreamscapes and is happy with the progress made so far, monetary gain is secondary to his work. “It’s not why I’m doing art,” he says. “I’m doing it because I need to. It’s an expression. I figure if it ever comes to the point where it pays the bills and I can continue to do what I love to do, that’s a dream come true.”