Navajo artist Gilmore Scott draws from his culture to create bold landscapes

Bold colors and geometric shapes adorn Gilmore Scott's landscape paintings. The Navajo artist said he believes the use of bright hues and sharp angles create a better likeness of his desert home rather than earth tones commonly used by painters.

"You'll see those beautiful colors, the rich oranges and the blues in the shadows and the purples, all the rich colors that come out early mornings, high noon," Scott said. "People are drawn to the landscape, something that's familiar to them and they are surprised by the color. But, then they recognize it."

He studied fine art at the College of Eastern Utah (now USU Eastern) and at Utah State University. He took a summer job with the U.S. Forest Service and eventually became a wildland firefighter. The work took him around the country — and toward the end of his service, he joined the helicopter crews. Scott said that gave him a new artistic perspective.

"That took me above the landscape. And that always stuck with me, because you're estimating fire size or how tall something might be due to shadows and time of the day," Scott explained. "I think that you see a lot of my shadow work in a lot of my pieces. That evolved from that — looking at the different shadows."

He has since returned to his earthly passion of painting — inspired by the landscape, Navajo rug weavers and other Diné traditions. Scott is the featured artist at the St. George Art Festival, April 7-8.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

PM: How do storms inform your paintings? In particular, the one called "Our Spring Rain Dazzler," that you'll be displaying at the art festival here in St. George.

GS: My storm pieces tie into a story that my mother once taught me about the storms. We, as Diné people, have what is known as a male storm and a female storm. [The] one that's portrayed here for the St. George Art Festival is a female storm.

The male in particular is just one color and mainly the black, the charcoal black. That's how he's designated. But he brings the first thunder for early spring that announces that winter is over. As a child, we would hear that first thunder — end of February, early March — and my mom would ask us to go outside and stretch. She would say that First Thunder is waking all the animals and insects and people out of winter's hibernation to prepare us for spring. And the spring rains involved the female rain. She comes in as soon as the male storm passes, which is more of a calm, a settling, soaking rain. And she's portrayed in a lot of cooler colors. So I get to play with colors with the female rain, a lot more than the male storm.

PM: Tell us about the geometric shapes you use and how rug weavers inform what you do.

GS: I've always been interested in the geometric designs from our rug weavers. My mom was a rug weaver, and I used to remember watching her weave rugs as a child. And there are a few rugs that are done quite a bit by weavers from all over the reservation from what's called the "eyedazzlers," — even a storm pattern. There's an actual storm patterned rug design, and those are the two that I like to play with quite a bit. So I would say my mom was a big influence as far as how the geometric patterns started to play into my pieces.

PM: And is there a connection to pop art?

GS: Yes. What we call the "eyedazzler" rug designs. A lot of the people who are aware of rug designs talked about how the pop art movement actually influenced our rug weavers in that particular designs — showing a sense of movement in their textiles. Earlier rug designs were more symmetrical. But if you see an "eyedazzler" rug, you'll see all the zigzags and the bold colors, the linear movement of the textile, almost an M.C. Escher style work.

PM: What reaction do you get from your own people to your art?

GS: People say it reminds them of home. A lot of times I travel throughout markets, throughout the country, and a lot of times you'll see a female figure in my work that's left silhouetted. Mainly just the moccasins or her skirt will be painted in. That leaves your imagination as far as filling that in, and a lot of people say, "Oh, that reminds me of my grandma or my mom."