These art objects are a record of my road to self acceptance: To my uncovering of the truth and the gradual understanding of how it all flows… and/or gets stuck along the way.

Starting with studying the teachings of Paul Klee and the Tao in the 1970’s, I continued through the decades with retreats, classes, workshops, museums, texts and teachings. I found that patterns began to emerge: ways of seeing and being that helped to reveal and unravel this self’s particular melange of panicked stew.

Art acted as both a witness and an activator, an active map and a mirror.

Starting from a self-crippling and defended mind, a process developed to let in space, air, and light… as it continues…

Getting under this emotional shell: So… lots of reading, learning, seeing and adapting forms and materials… trial and error… running from fear and the nagging terror of doubt, of not being perfect.

All the while I was learning to move through these trials by painting, writing, ceramic sculpture, (even acting), my ego rode on my back, balking at my imperfection.

The mind was so critical that I theorized more than I created, so as not to get beaten up.

I learned to dive deep and massage open the knots, breathing into the destructive ghosts of the past—exploding them into ephemera, or at least befriending them.

Who is this painting for?


Scott R. Holloway
Oakland, California
June 2023