Scott Schoenick

Cave Fish Studios features the work of artist Scott Schoenick, a former Chicago-area resident who relocated to the Pacific Northwest in late 2018. Scott works primarily with wood, often incorporating foraged and re-purposed objects into a wide range of mixed-media art pieces including fish sculptures, kinetic art, and one-of-a-kind art birdhouses.

Scott's work embraces the traditional Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi, which celebrates natural objects and the changes they exhibit over time‚ faded colors, eroded shapes, and countless other imperfections that create visual interest, invite wonder, and remind us that, "we are all but a small drop in the vast ocean of time and space."

ARTIST STATEMENT

My ambition is to create art that reflects my fascination with the contrast between the beauty inherent in natural, imperfect objects, and the wonders of the modern world.

My process for creating art almost never begins with anything more than a vague idea or rough sketch from my notebook. I am acutely aware of the purity and power inherent in a first thought, and I'm at my best when attuned to what Joseph Conrad called "the inner voice that decides" For me, that means intentionally deviating from an initial plan to allow my work to evolve as new ideas occur and new possibilities emerge during the process of creation. Simply stated, I go where the day takes me, and know where I'll end up when I get there.

Although I work in a variety of media, woodworking is my life-long passion, and the lessons I've learned in that discipline inform everything I create. Working with wood demands the precise execution of a series of diverse tasks, a few with potentially dangerous consequences if done haphazardly (said the nine-fingered artist), and many where even a small error in judgment, measurement or motion can send you back to square one. It' a time-consuming and typically exacting process that demands focus, patience, and a love of solitude, as success mandates long hours sequestered in my wood shop.

Breaking free from the bonds of creative caution is perhaps my greatest challenge, and the axiom that "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet" is an oft repeated mantra as I strive to push the limits of my creativity. As William Blake once said, "Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by incapacity" which I believe to be true nowhere more than in the creative process.

Scott
October 2021