Caleb Scott

My early artistic life was spent creating a make-believe world with my younger brother. I spent thousands of hours illustrating the creatures and weapons we would encounter in our imaginations. Our world was complex and ever developing. It aged with us all the way up through high school. To us, this world was so real that heated debates about in-world politics or social discrepancies came as natural as debating real-life politics or morality. Our shared knowledge was so extensive that we could have entire conversations with our hands from across the dinner table that would send us both into fits of laughter. I feel confident in saying that this make-believe game was the most defining part of my childhood. I still carry the ideas and stories with me into my artwork today. So, it was only logical that this show would be about make-believe.

Society expects a lot of us as adults. Survival in American life requires us to stay on high alert and to consider everything we say and do through a thousand lenses. We spend so much time considering and fearing what the consequence of a misstep could be that our minds get no time to relax. It is no coincidence that anxiety and depression are on the rise. Yet, we all play along and even preach it to one another, saying things like “be careful how you say that” like broken records. We do this even though we know deep down that it isn’t healthy. It is no surprise that we try to cope by forcing ourselves to “relax” by taking out our phones in every spare minute to escape. Instead, they leave us over-stimulated.

Most of us had figured out how to live carefree by the age of three. What changed? Simple, we lose our unbridled imagination, sense of wonder, and belief that anything is possible. We all need to be reminded of the freedom of childhood. This is what I hope you experience as you venture through my show. I have created for you a part of a fictional world. It is flawed and incomplete, but with your imaginations, it can become brilliant and mystical.

I invite you to venture into this environment that I created from my imagination. However, your experience with it is your own. Are you an explorer? Are you a great warrior seeking to conquer? A magician hunting a great power. Whoever you are, I encourage you to suspend that voice that tells you that make-believe is for children and invent a world that extends beyond the borders of these paintings and sculptures. Imagination is a skill like any other, only we as adults often neglect to cultivate it. As you journey through this page, look, read, and imagine yourself in this world. Draw connections between what you read and what you see. Contact me to ask hypothetical questions about what you discover. Help make this world with me. And, most importantly, have fun!

This show is dedicated to my brother, Gabriel T. Scott. I am sad that it is not our original world as you were not able to create it with me, and that we may never get to play through it together. I only hope that through it, others may be reminded of as many good memories as we have playing M.