Shelby Scattergood

Statement

My latest body of work explores the intersection of time, memory, and self-perception through a series of photorealistic portrait drawings. Each piece is drawn from photographs taken through warped glass, allowing the distortion to shape the final image. This interaction between abstraction and photorealism speaks to how we see ourselves in the “now” and how our memories and experiences can distort our understanding of ourselves. The conception of this series was triggered by my being diagnosed as neurodivergent at age 28 (following a year of severe burnout), which drastically altered my current and past perceptions of myself.

This latest work is also inspired by a fascination with non-linear theories of time. I’m interested in the idea of time existing to us how a sphere may be perceived to a flat circle within it’s two-dimensional world (this being a direct reference to the book “Flatland”). The basis of the idea being that we cannot perceive time or ourselves in their entirety. I’m intrigued by this hypothetical world where we exist as a whole, but are only able to experience ourselves in metaphorical “slices” (again a reference to “Flatland”). The circular nature of my art is often a nod to this idea.