Scott Cronin

I’ve heard myself described as a “self-taught, emerging artist.”

I see it a bit differently.

First of all, I don’t think of myself AS an “artist.” I consider myself a “producer of images.”

Secondly, no one is really a “self-taught” anything. We’ve all synthesized and interpreted in our own way what we’ve observed, heard, read about, loved, hated, been engaged by. We all learn from others. We all learn from Life.

I’ve always had an innate talent for organizing physical space. The use of that talent here, plus the “manu-facturing” process itself in the sense of working and manipulating objects with my hands, is what I most enjoy about creating these images.

I work in a variety of media but predominately in pastel and acrylic paint on paper and canvas. I use the edges of anything, from straight rulers to form templates to whatever is at hand. I usually burnish my paintings by rubbing them with furniture polish. I do re-color and re-line my prints, often adding new elements and designs, so that each print is actually an original in itself.

I always work with music playing in the background and certain types of music are associated with each of the different styles here. I’ve had my Miles Davis period, my Philip Glass period. The emerging shapes and colors are therefore related to sound and I like to think of what I do as “Tonal Alchemy.”

My experience of painting is much like that of following a trail or having an adventure. Intuition and surprise play a major role in my process. Images arise as I follow both familiar and surprising forms. So, my process is much like playing a jazz solo, turning “mistakes” into themes as I go.

When I try to describe this experience, I often use the phrase “random precision,” which I interpret to mean “being deliberate without being intentional,” that is, without having a specific plan or outcome in mind at the beginning.

I feel that these works long to be in public spaces; in the hallways of children’s hospitals, in hotel rooms, and duplicated in much larger formats for the lobbies of corporations.

I do hope that people enjoy these works and that it gives them both a sense of whimsy and reflection. As for me, all I know is that I’ll continue to produce images so long as it remains fun.