“The Corner” was completed in 2025 for the University of Colorado Department of Public Health as part of an ongoing effort to warn users about the dangers of highly potent commercially available marijuana.

I begin each painting with a plan. Polar grids, circles and squares are mapped out carefully, and that structure gives me a place to let go. On top of it, paint and color are applied by feel, and the upper layers become looser and more open as the work goes on. Earlier colors are allowed to break through the final surface. The precision is there to make room for what can’t be planned.

The idea underneath the work is that opposites can live together. Order and spontaneity, hard edges and loose ones, intention and accident: I’m interested in how these can sit side by side in a single image and look like they belong there.

How the paintings are seen is up to the viewer. They can be taken in simply for the balance of design and color, and that is enough. But for someone who stays with them a while, there may be more to find.

I spent many years in advertising, so I know how things get made to compete for attention. That isn’t what I’m doing here. These are paintings, not products, and I am a person, not a brand. They are made slowly and are meant to be looked at the same way.

scott@scottmargolisart.com