Artist Information - Nate Scoble
Artist Statement
Here are things I feel. I want my work to express the same truths.
I call my visual art work 'Selfscapes'. Though the Internet has subsequently shown me the term's in fairly popular use,
it's the most apt name I've found so far. Pen-and-ink landscapes tend to start with 'actual' places; people in my work might start
as someone I've seen or dreamed but I know they're 'out there'. I want them to have living presence like the individuals around me.
My visual art, my music, and my written words experientially aim to enact a 'selfhood' that is inclusive, questions whether
'personality' is a constant, asks how we can say 'the self' exists, and seeks individuality that is socially and ecologically
just and needs no 'leaders'. I seek a continuous topology of concerns: delve a bit into Eros, get sentimental about the
hippie past and still advocate its utopianism, have the cake of dreams and eat it too, etc. 'Self' bodies forth and copulates
with landscape, sign, symbol, nymph and satyr in the foam.
Color of a color, Location of an idea
I believe there's truth in discussions of 'language mysticism' such as occurred in Vienna in 1910. I believe in 'noosphere':
words, ideas, songs caper and intend as spirit-forces in the consciousness-ether, for better and for worse, as we extend the
'metropole' and race against our eco-tastrophic demise. Correspondingly, 'selfhood' is as constellated and as remotely-located
as where one's 'content' travels to and from. How can I detach myself from the landscape, body twined with it at every
port of entry and discharge?
Immersed in global supercorporate ownership and brand definition by remote locations, 'meaning' fights being severed from
speech, genetic redefinition on demand seeks the deepest golden pockets, emerging ecological distortions promise to
enormously change 'property' and 'ownership'. I try to suggest paths through dis-location toward self-constitution not
degradation, with an attitude that might be termed 'corrosively positive'. My wish is to create maps of the process of arriving
at truth, while knowing truth ever slips away, evanescent as a flower.
Resume
EDUCATION
• B.A., UC Santa Cruz, Music Compositionm 1977
• B.A., Otis/Parsons Los Angeles, Fine Arts Painting and Printmaking, 1982
VISUAL ART
• Completed a number of layered and 'multi-face' drawings and paintings while at Otis/Parsons and following (1980-1983).
• I have pursued making music along with a graphic design career for many years. I have learned that my work has
always been ‘Selfscapes’, now consciously in the context of the planetary ‘metropole’ and ecological/epistemic crisis, but
co-evolving in a fuller way with my music and writing.I resumed drawing and painting after life-threatening illness (1995-1997)
and an epiphany while sitting at the computer in 2000; my visual arts work has been the following.
• Drawings series (all are in progress):
Selfscapes: 'Plume' / 'The Live Oaks’ / 'Simple Moms’ / 'Detective Dan’ / 'War is the diseased becoming the deceased' /
'Katherina’ / 'Startron and the Love Ring' (in tandem with the musical work) / 'Iona'
• Paintings series:
Selfscapes: small paintings (30" x 22")
Selfscapes: Large 'Multi-face' paintings and other paintings (in progress)
• Other visual arts projects:
Created story and art for children’s book, ‘Do You Have A Favorite Horse?’ (2001).
Created story and art for a children’s book, ‘The Best Chest’ (2004).
Created story and art for a children’s book, ‘Ur And The Voices’ (2005).
• Preparing for public show of visual art.
SHOWN ART
• Holiday Show, Topanga Canyon Gallery, 12-2008
• Brewery Art Walk, Topanga Canyon Gallery, 04-2009
MUSIC PROJECTS
I have been an active singer-songwriter and guitarist for many years. My principal projects
(performances and recordings) follow.
• The Blue Daisies (1982-1985); album, ‘Wilt’, (Iridescense #123, Michael Sheppard, producer,
Ethan James, Engineer, 1985).
• What Makes Donna Twirl? (1985-1987); album, ‘What Makes Donna Twirl? / TonijeSala’ album released
(PsychoAcoustic Sounds / Ralph, 1987).
• The Smash Cousins (later Future of Hell) (1988-1990).
• ‘Nude Knight’ solo CD (1987-1990), released under pseudonym Nils Shields (1990).
• Mouthsore with Russell Masuno (aka ‘Ginger Leigh’) (1991-1994).
• ‘Virgette de Godbunker’, second solo CD of all-original material (1992-1993); album released under
pseudonym Nils Shields (1993).
• ‘Startron And The Love Ring’, an avant-rock opera, recording in progress 1996-present.
• Lead guitarist and co-writer with The Deadbeats (who wrote the song ‘Kill The Hippies’) (1996-2000).
• Song cycle: ‘Songs for Bob Enevoldsen’ (personal friend), music in jazz idiom (unreleased, 1997).
• Song cycles: ‘Lavendar Lovegiver In The Pansex’, ‘Darkheart’ (unreleased, 1999).
• ‘Firelight’ song cycle (2000-2007), self-released CD; recorded at Catasonic by ‘Lovegiver’ musical project –
Spencer Savage (drums/percussion) and Michael Gordon (saxophone).
• Song cycle: ‘Kanan’ (unreleased, 2002).
• Song cycle: ‘Trystram Street' (2004-present); project in progress.
• Co-written art songs and bossa-nova-idiom songs with Weba Garretson, performed by her (2004-present).
MUSIC PERFORMANCES
• Many shows with The Blue Daisies, What Makes Donna Twirl?, The Smash Cousins, Mouthsore at Los Angeles clubs and spaces
as noted above from 1982 through 1994.
• ‘Startron And The Love Ring' performed with Spencer Savage, percussion, at Glaxa Studios, Los Angeles, May 1996.
• Original songs, performed with Spencer Savage, percussion, at Beyond Baroque, Venice, July 1998.
• NIine solo performances of current songs at Dangerous Curve, Los Angeles, from 12-2006 to 05-2008.
POETRY
• Active in Beyond Baroque Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop, 05-1996 to 12-1999. (See also 'Graphic Design'.)
GRAPHIC DESIGN
• Assistant Art Director at HOME MAGAZINE, Knapp Communications Corp (1987-1988).
• Art Director of AUDIO/VIDEO INTERIORS, CurtCo Publishing Corp, a high-end monthly
coffee-table magazine (1988-1995).
• Designed Beyond Baroque Logo (1997). Designed and produced Beyond Baroque Wednesday Night Poetry
Workshop Anthology (Sarah Maclay and Jessica Pompeii, Editors); its format has served since as the format for
poetry books published by Beyond Baroque (1997-1998).
• Designed Corporate Annual Reports as Senior Designer at Libera Design, Santa Monica (1998).
• Freelance Graphic Designer / Art Director (1996-present).
• Designed Premiere Issue of VACATION HOMES, CurtCo Publishing LLC (2004).
652 Moulton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90031 • www.natescoble.com • nmscoble@sbcglobal.net • 323.227.1039