Scott Ferry

'Scarlet Dawn' by Michael Robinson

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Born in California 1971, I have been living and working in Montréal, Canada since 1994.

My work utilizes digital drawing & painting techniques, photography, and a personal active mythology.

Digital drawing & painting techniques stem from my background in Illustration and Drawing. Previous work in the late '80's and early '90's consisted mostly of pen and ink drawings using line art and a stipple technique. Much like the artist Austin Osman Spare, a British magician and artist, the drawings contained a map of uncharted territories within the mind; magical directions calling forth spirits and elementals. As a whole each drawing was named after a specific emotion or state of mind.

The Photography work that I was doing during that time was incorporating my drawing as well. I would take several neighborhood or landscape shots, which had the emotion and sensation that I was interested in. I then would alter it via color photocopier and then draw and paint into it using various color inks. The blending of drawing and photographic shapes lent to even deeper sensations that I was searching for. I was also now able to incorporate 'Real' life experience into my creative expression. A blend of elemental 'natural' sensations and my imagination, birthing specific spirits according to my will.

The combination of these two techniques into computer-generated imagery has led to a whole new range of possibilities. Through the use of programs like Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, and Deep Paint I now have almost limitless potentials for both Photographic imagery and Drawing/Painting. Photographic images are now gathered together to create a whole new environment, human forms can be pieced together to create a whole new set of movements and body forms, and individual objects can be incorporated into the artwork at will. Drawing & painting has also become enhanced with the ability to paint in and add colors, blend in multi-layered images, paint and draw in completely new objects and forms, and create 3d objects. These techniques reweave the existing canvas of ordinary photography allowing it to become a mixed media artwork.

The imagery that I create currently explores environmental and sensory impressions. These impressions give rise to strong attractions, liberating feelings, and present patterns. Each object, figure, and landscape represents a different facet of these emotional energies.

Various figure portraits have begun to incorporate a look and feel of my deep interest in pre-Gardnerian witchcraft, Austin Osman Spare techniques of sorcery, and modern Chaos magic impregnation of symbols. Common elements & symbols are present in my work that most of us have heard of in our experience or by word of mouth, books, TV, and movies. Elements like the witch's hat, the magical dagger, the wand, the protective magical circle, and so on. Each symbol or figures are complexes that trigger automatic responses. I am using these visual techniques to access the unconscious, so that we can come face to face with our strengths, weaknesses, biases, and fears.

Scott Ferry
digital mixed media artist

Click Alienshow and/or Summer of Love to view Flash animations by Scott in new windows
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Faery 4

Mirror Mirror

Preternatural

Smeared

Spin

Unflower

Venuc

Wrap

From the Body Void Series

From The Witch Way Series (in process) Expanding Prescience Lightness of Being Witch Way

From the Southern 37 Series   The Dreaming The Dreaming 2 Haemal Ova Southern 37 The project that I am proposing integrates digitally altered photographs taken in Southern France and California, mixed with dream-like impressions. In my manipulation of photographs, I am investigating how environmental impressions give rise to strong attractions and present patterns. My research on atavisms is also strongly present in my work. I am exploring how our current mental and physical actions are motivated and enhanced by the reappearance of remote ancestral characteristics. My project is called Southern 37, it consists of enlarged digitally altered photographs and a short Macromedia Flash movie. In each image, I wanted to demonstrate the mix of ancestral and environmental background, the presence of atavistic resurgence, and dream-like impressions. These different momentous of the past combined with present impressions and artistic action metamorphose into a new story. Atavistic urges which stretch back through human and non-human memories. Memories of my blood family, a family that extends back into the deep recesses of my own mind. The dependent relationship of meeting people and connecting with the environment subtly shows the key to our present patterns, experiences, and tastes. The realization that thought and action, motivated by deep-seated memory, touches many people through life & death. The digital image work is accomplished through Adobe PhotoShop and Macromedia Flash software, with the aid of a Pentax manual camera and a D-Link digital camera. An installation would consist of these photographs and a Flash movie. The movie can be present either on the Internet or/and CD. I have the means to place the Flash movie on the web so people can view it easily. This short movie gives another impression of the photographs, and it is meant as a compliment to the images. It will consist of subtle animation, music, and text fragments. The Flash movie would explore new media in the area of panoramic images, vector imaging, transparency mask features, and so on. Each feature would be dealt with solely from within the Flash 5 platform using its native 'Action Script'. To view an introduction to the Flash movie 'Southern 37' on this CD, click here. To view the latest version of this project, visit: http://www.keajra.net/s37_project.htm

Solo Exhibitions:

• Sorcery in High Altitude,17th June - 19th July, 2002, at Medias Forum, Beziers, France.
• Slipstream Slide, Starting May 2002. Cafe Starbucks. (Laurier and Park). Montreal, Canada.
• Witch Way, Starting March 2002 Second Cup. (Decelles and Queen Mary). Montreal, Canada. 2001
• Hagalaz Second Cup. (St. Denis on the plateau) Montréal, Canada. 2000
• Demoness...circle of tension & joy, Aurafice gallery, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
• Demoness... ever-after sweetness, Café Griffintown, Montréal, Canada.

 

Group Exhibitions:

2001

• Samsara ~ run by John B. Dutton, a Montreal artist, writer and advertising creative director. Samsara is both a gallery and a magazine. http://www.samsara.ca
• Focus Gallery ~ Online gallery currated by Tom Chambers http://tomchambers.0catch.com/index-145.html
  

2000

• Bad Juju Lounge, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., Chaotica, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

1999

• Hassan I Sabbah's Electric Menagerie, Douglas Art School, Murphysboro, Illinois, U.S.A.
  

1998

• Carobnica: beyond the pale. TechnOboro, Montréal, Canada.

Personal Projects:

2002

• Tinker Bell ~ Digital mixed media project. Based on the character 'tinker bell' in Peter Pan. Ongoing project.

2001+

• Southern 37 ~ Flash and print project. Oceanic dreams and atavistic resurgence. Still on going project. http://www.keajra.net/southern_37.htm

2000

• Demoness (sweetness ever~after) by Scott Ferry ~ Small book publication. Published April 2000. Montréal, Canada.
  

1999

• Summer of Love ~ Web project, Macromedia Flash.
  

1998

• Demoness (sweetness ever~after) ~ Web site.

Employment and Involvement:

2002

• Feeling and Form member ~ A creative community online. Feeling and Form is a company that caters to artists, writers
  and musicians. It is focused to provide a creative venue and feedback for like minded individuals. http://www.feelingandform.com/
• World Wide Arts Resources and Absolute Arts member ~ portfolio at: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/s/sferry/

2001

• Sonne Hagal/Nerthus ~ (music genre neo-folk, ambient). 4 digital art reproductions for the cover and insert of a split LP. Published in Italy. http://www.sonnehagal.de/Einsatzleitung/Das_Werk/das_werk.html
• 2nd Annual NKT International Art Auction. New Kadampa Tradition (mahayana buddhism) Albany, New York, U.S.A. - Cumbria, England.

2000+

• NAPP member (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)
  

2000

• 1st Annual NKT International Art Auction ~ New Kadampa Tradition (mahayana buddhism). San Francisco, USA - Cumbria, England.

1997+

• Web designer & builder ~ Intuitive Computer Technologies/Point Reef, Costa Mesa, California, U.S.A. http://www.pointreef.com
  

1997

• World Tea Party ~ Web & chat, TechnOboro, Montréal, Canada. http://www.teapot.com/WorldTeaParty/Tea.html