Interview by Jimon

1.18 Where do you reside and work currently?  For the past seven years I’ve lived in New York. My family is from New York but I grew up and went to boarding school in New Jersey. However I’m kind of starting over and moving to LA this summer. I’m the first one in my family to really take on the west coast and I’m pretty excited about it.

2.18 How would you describe Scout Zabinski? Super funny question. She’s a weirdo. A bit of a witch, or witch in training. Very honest and loyal, probably too smart for her own good and is stuck in her head a lot. Scout (me? I don’t know how I got trapped into writing about myself in third person) is a painter, but she is also a very intense and competitive nerd who likes to play softball with old men in Prospect park.

3.18 When did you first start making art and what lead you to start?  I guess I started when I was very young but at that point I didn’t take it seriously. As a kid, I went to Catholic school and would stick around after class to draw with the choir teacher in the back of a church. I can still see her Botox lips spitting at me as she scolded me for coloring in opposite directions.  Then in high school, I fell into painting. I was an overachiever and didn’t think it was anything more than a hobby. But I got this award for a studio art class, a golden hammer with my name inscribed on it, and began to realize it brought me more joy than cramming for AP exams I truly didn’t care about. I didn’t go to art school, my surgeon father probably would’ve had an aneurysm, but I took some painting electives at NYU and started doing some silly group shows. My first one was actually at a tiny mom and pop pharmacy in Soho.

4.18 Did you have any training for your art or is it inherent?  No, I mean the electives I took basically just were a source of materials. They handed me canvas and paint, sometimes a prompt, and I just did what I wanted. I was never good at listening to professors so I doubt I would have done well at an art school. One time a teacher asked us to make an abstract painting and after struggling with it for days I made a painting of Bernini’s “The Rape of Proserpina” surrounded by shapes resembling Elizabeth Murray’s work. I called it a day, kind of satisfied, but the professor didn’t buy it.

5.18 Best advice you ever received in regards to your art?  Probably to focus more on what I do outside of the studio. It seems silly but if your life isn’t inspiring or enjoyable, it shows in the work. You have to nurture the art that the art is born from. I’m still working on this daily.

6.18 What influences you as an artist?  I am influenced by everything. I find myself learning from my paintings. Inserting my body in situations that will teach me something or help me work through something I need to heal. Usually my work is focused on my life, memories and instances that have existed in my mind for years but need an outlet so I can accept them and move on. It’s been incredibly helpful in dealing with some PTSD and has taught me acceptance, that I am who I am for a reason.  For my next show, I’m focusing in a bit on myths, fables, magic, and biblical parables. Lessons we have been taught but are external to us. I want to insert myself into these stories and see what else I can learn from them, how it feels to be the subject as opposed to the voyeur. Voyeurism is key to my work but I want to kind of flip it on its head.

7.18 Do you use models for your paintings or is it purely from Imagination?  I actually pose for my own paintings. It’s a key part to the process because I want every piece to be as vulnerable and raw as possible. I want the viewer to be slightly uncomfortable and know that they are looking in on something very intimate. The details, tattoos, birthmark and gaze all come from a quite literally naked moment. I’m not really able to hide. I give the viewer everything but then make them ask themselves if that’s all that’s there, if they understand the joke or the story. Almost always, I’m telling them a riddle they can’t solve.

8.18 Why make art?  Why do anything? For me it’s a constant battle. I love a challenge. Each painting is a birth for me; my own birth. I get to see myself more with each one. If you don’t push yourself, you remain the same. I guess I paint because I want to grow. Art saved me from dying as a teen. My identity is so largely consumed by what I create that I don’t know where or what I would be without it. It’s become this strange immortalization process that both intrigues and terrifies me.

9.18 How do you describe success as an artist?  Success is seeing progress. Completing a painting I feel proud of or learning from a piece I can’t stand. You can have a million tiny victories in the studio that no one sees. They just get to view the end result, but I usually feel more successful in those lonely moments. You always think the next show or the next painting will make you happy; odds are it won’t. I’m trying to enjoy the journey more and not get so wrapped up in where it is taking me.

10.18 Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration?  So many. My favorite source of inspiration is actually therapy. Sounds funny because my practice is also therapy in a way, but I always come out of sessions with a few ideas, most are usually scrapped.  Second would be sleep. I wake up from vivid dreams and write down ideas in a journal I keep by my bed or on my phone. Sometimes what I write doesn’t make sense but it’s become a little puzzle I try to work out in the studio.

11.18 If you were to be stranded on a deserted island and you could bring one piece of art what would it be?  I think anything I brought I would grow sick of in a week. I’m very moody and change my taste every 3 days. But maybe a work by Lisa Yuskavage or Benjamin Spiers if I could get my hands on one. Then I could try and teach myself something useful over the course of my isolation.

12.18 Tell us something about the art world that you want to see changed?  Can I name like 300 things? No? Okay well numero uno would be the notion of competition. Mid career and emerging artists suck at supporting their peers. I’ve fallen out with quite a few people due to jealousy or lack of genuine support and it’s really disheartening. There’s enough space, time, galleries, and exhibitions for us all to show our work. I’d like to think that if you champion your peers they will do the same when you, like all artists, inevitably have a “dry spell”.

13.18 If a movie was to be made about your life, where would it ideally take place and who would be the actor playing your part?  Amazing question. It would probably take place in New York because most of my life has been here. For actors it depends on what I’m going for. I think Kristen Stewart could get my oddities and vibe. But for vanity, I would say Angelina Jolie because she was my one of my first crushes. Jennifer Lawrence also has a very similar sense of humor and demeanor. I would take anyone though.

14.18 If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table?  Bernini, Cindy Sherman, and Lisa Yuskavage? 3 is hard. I could name 200.

15.18 Name three things you can’t live without in your studio?  A couch for naps, espresso machine, and phone charger.

16.18 If you were asking the questions what question would you ask and please follow up with an answer.
Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
A: I will spitfire a few. I swam with great whites in Africa, have bungee jumped twice, jumped out of a moving car once, won the NYC marathon for my age group in 2016, and have injured myself in more ridiculous ways than any other person I know (stories for another time).

17.18 How would someone find you on social media?  Instagram @scoutzabinski

18.18 Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:
Art= cool
Food= hurt
Sports= one of the boys
Politics= major yuck
Poor= baby
God= real?
Rich= daddy
Luxury= cars
Sex= no bueno
Picasso= first drawing I ever sold
Religion= God is a little girl in me