Danielle Scott

Lives and works in Jersey City, NJ, USA

Artist statement

An artist has one duty and that is to tell the times.” – Nina Simone I created this work to allure and to create thought provoking dialect. I want viewers to get absorbed in the work and to feel it as I do. I want the work to be a perfect rendering of emotion and a spiritual tugging of the whole self. After spending 20 years of my career as an oil painter, my career shifted unexpectedly in 2018 as I walked the streets of one of my ancestral homelands, Cuba. It was my first time in the country, yet as I slept and woke, and walked, and worked, I felt a tug at my core that was both foreign and familiar. The rich art that lined the streets and walls powerfully depicted the story of Cuba’s culture and history, reflected the times and the people, in a way tugged at my soul. The art and I were in communion, my ancestors powerful voices whispering to my soul, their stories written into the walls. I was home. This started my awakening. No single medium alone would ever again be enough to express all that the times were calling me to say. I was a painter, but I put aside my paintbrush. I needed more than paint. I needed paint and paper, texture and color, objects lost and objects found, metal and cotton. I needed to deconstruct and reassemble. I needed to cut and cover and color and crown. I needed to listen and to learn to speak in a thousand mediums to tell the stories that I now heard all around me, everywhere.This body of work comes from the journey that I’ve taken over the last...

Artwork