In college, I got into painting. With oils. This was a wild time for me because I was recovering from an ankle injury, and was basically perked out. lmao. but i would show up to my 9am oil painting class on campus with Nirvana in my ears and painkillers in my stomach. it was a vibe! albeit a little destructive one… but i was still recovering!
most of the course at USC was just studying different topics of oil painting; still lifes, models, landscape, etc. Then came the final project, when we could paint anything we wanted. and thats when i began to find my style .
I had spent the night with a girl after one of our fraternity events, when i first saw it there, laying in her bed. the colors Red, Orange and Grey. Im not sure what it was, but i seemed to be in some type of trance the following weeks. maybe some type of aura reading? I’m not sure… however, i couldn’t get that image out of my head. hence the first name of the painting, Rita. that was the girls name.
then, while i was painting away in the studio (see below), another USC student was in there with me, painting an image of the coliseum and students on game day. we got to chatting, and she was intrigued with how into the painting process i was. i felt free! as a smeared colors onto the large canvas. her name was Julia. (i used a lot of paint)
Then Scott was a friend that i had showed the final product to, and he gave me some sound advice to the ways of the artist at the time. He was in the course as well, and throughout the semester we would discuss the perils of the artist’s path while sitting out on the lawn, painting our landscapes and smoking our joints.
hence the name, Rita Julia Scott (2014).
