Biography

Michael Scott is a Pacific Northwest sculptor known for his refined wood forms, elegant contours and the quiet strength of his craftsmanship. Working primarily with turned and carved wood, he creates vessels and sculptural objects that highlight the natural beauty of the material. Scott’s work often features clean lines, balanced proportions and surfaces that reveal the inherent patterns, warmth and complexity of the wood grain.

With decades of experience working in both functional and sculptural woodworking traditions, Scott brings a deep respect for material and process to his practice. His work has been exhibited widely across the region and is held in numerous private collections. Scott’s sculptures are known for their simplicity, subtlety and the meditative quality that emerges from his precise, disciplined approach.

STATEMENT

My work generally revolves around four basic themes:

1. Rough-hewn, chainsaw carved, sandblasted, rock-like forms, amphitheatres and huge vessels that appear to have been excavated from an ancient ‘dig’.
2. Strong forms, geometric - usually hemispherical or discus, broken up by hard lines, fluted, segmented, scorched and limed. Some pieces are hollowed, with the fluting ‘breaking through’ the walls allowing light to pass through, creating shadows.
3. Sculptural objects – cube forms, tusk-like objects, columnar forms, some made on the lathe, others carved.
4. Simple, elegant, scorched thin walled bowl forms in ash.

Since moving to Whidbey Island in May 2010, I have been enjoying a new phase of life with my wife, Kim Kelzer, doing construction and building maintenance, nest-building at our home, building and renovating wooden boats, messing with motorcycles, and generally having fun in this great community. As suitable wood stock has become available, however, I have gradually increased my output, necessitating extensive modifications to the lathe to enable larger pieces to be worked on; several successful exhibtions have encouraged me to continue to develop, and this latest body of work incorporates a lot more color than before, utilising the versatility of milk paints, which lend themselves to the ‘antique’ look of my work. The last batch of wood I acquired was a huge gnarly stump from a Madrona, heavily split and mostly seriously degraded, which gave me the challenge of how to attain a suitable ‘finish’ to each piece. Using paint has added another dimension to the ‘woodiness’ of my work, so it appears almost as ceramic. I have always enjoyed the alchemy of transformation. Each piece of wood I start with is unique, and the process of ‘evolving’ on and off the lathe is what makes it so challenging and exciting.