Scott Idleman
My visual language is inspired by a family tradition of quilt making interfaced with imagined aerial and microscopic views. Quilts kept my family warm, engendered dreams and helped folks heal when they were ill. They also bore witness to the cycle of life, birth until death, but also dazzling artful yet utilitarian objects. In that tradition, repetition and pattern is key to my work—the making of the work itself is comforting and a form of meditation to connect with self and others. Moods and impressions of dreams inform my color palettes, sometimes harmonious and other times discordant. When I’m creating, it feels like the work flows out of the confines of the medium into a vast cosmos full of possibilities.
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I have been working on my tonal watercolor series on paper since 2017. Recently I started working larger and creating volume and dimensionality with gradations of hues. The intersecting shapes bring to mind conduits or aerial views of roadways, flowing in and out of the space.
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In my paper construction pieces, I arrange the simple components into detailed compositions that undulate, radiate and recede in seemingly infinite space. The repetition of forms suggests the inherent yet sometimes incomprehensible logic of both the cosmic and cellular.
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Idleman was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He attended Kansas City Art Institute where he received a B.F.A. in Graphic Design with minors in fibers, photography and painting. After five years in New York, Idleman settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1992 and resides in the SF Mission.
