Using Egyptian cotton mounted on acid free mat boards, Scott Campbell’s pieces in the Black Sanctity line have been framed by Haruo Kimura, one of the exclusive framers for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each work floats purposefully in a white frame, symbolizing the light coming out of moments of darkness, its full effects truly appreciable without the obstruction that the glare of glass would cause.

Black Sanctity was created during a dark period of loss for the artist, Scott Campbell, who would spend quiet moments of reflection throughout Catholic churches in New York City.  It was during this period he chose to harness the energy of faith and finding light in periods of darkness through his work. To visibly push the boundaries of finding light out of darkness, Scott chose to create all of the work using only black watercolors, creating images by infusing black watercolors with ink to pull color and light into the depths of their darkness.

In Ancient Rome, genius was considered a guiding spirit or person sent to us to inspire us to create and produce. The achievements of exceptional individuals seemed to indicate the presence of a particularly powerful genius, as it was believed that the inspiration or talent of the spirit or person helped guide these individuals and played a crucial role in their accomplishments.

The ancient tribal people of North Africa found their own displays of divinity during celebrations of the full moon, when the best dancers would gather and dance around by the fire and under the stars and the full moon. On occasion, one dancer might stand out significantly more so more than the others, in a moment when time seemed to stop and transform the dancer to become a portal, no longer merely human, illuminated from within by a divine light. Such a display awe inspiring, demanding of honor, and so those gathered around would put their hands together and chant the name of God.

The light seen in those radiant displays, the essence of God and His brilliance shining through in a mere mortal, are what drove Scott’s creation of each work in the Black Sanctity series. To this day, he believes a guardian angel was sent to him to help create the pieces; and to finish the project, Scott decided to smoke all of the work to symbolize a spark of light coming out of the darkness. Beginning his process at his studio, Scott was forced to move his work outside when neighbors complained of the smell; and he found the culmination of his creativity just outside of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York, where his process continued until the fire and police departments were alerted of the smell of smoke. Had it not been for what Scott believes was divine intervention, the project would have been shut down; but when an officer in charge saw the undeniable creativity of the pieces, he was merely given a warning, free to walk away into the light.

In creating Black Sanctity, Scott’s greatest hope is to pull the viewer into depths of blackness to remind them that when these moments of darkness cross our path, there is still hope that we shall find light.

The purpose of the project is to draw the viewer closer to nature the universal village, that we all share in.  All of the feathers were secured via bird sanctuaries and aviaries and are naturally molted. ‘Thunder in the Pines’ is a seven part series, with the first village appearing in Rosemary Beach. The other six villages will appear in Montauk, Geneva, London, Paris, Monaco and lastly Kyoto.

The feathered pieces represent the inhabitants of a floral mushroom village which appears overnight after a thunderstorm. Oddly enough, after weeks of crystal blue skies in Rosemary Beach, a rain/thunderstorm touched terra firma at the onset of this project a new tribe appeared.

In Japanese, the general word for mushroom, kinoko, means “child of the tree.”  Mushrooms can also derive their names from characters in folklore, animals, colors, modes of life, or even utensils they may resemble. Although names certainly provide insight into the emphases of a given culture, the mushrooms themselves are universal and elude fixed boundaries. And, this is the mystery of Mushrooms as they seemingly appear overnight, growing or expanding rapidly out of nowhere. This phenomenon is the source of several common expressions including “mushrooming” (expanding rapidly in size or scope) and “to pop up like a mushroom” (to appear unexpectedly and quickly).

Mushrooms do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable. In many ways, love transcends rationale; it is risky, venturesome and upside-down affair that defies odds. Mushrooms are a tribe viewed, developmentally or historically, as a social group existing before the development of, or outside, states.

A tribe is a group of distinct people, dependent on their land for their livelihood, who are largely self-sufficient, and not integrated into the national society.

I always associate flight with feathers. Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of the soul’s memory, emotion and thoughts. As immortal beings, they knew they would need a light heart to move on to the next level of spiritual awareness.  According to ‘The Book of the Dead,’ upon death, the heart was weighed on the scales of justice against the feather of Ma’at. They believed that if the heart was heavier than the feather it would be eaten immediately by Ammut the Devourer, a crocodie-lion. In order to ensure a light heart, Ancient Egyptians often visualize their heart on a scale with the feather always in balance. Balance, is the key to flight, as you can’t take flight without thrust or the expelling of accelerated mass in one direction causes a force of equal magnitude in the opposite direction.  It’s this equal balance that gives us wings. I believe our tribes hearts ascends when we embrace nature… only then will you become “light as a feather”.

Feathers were used for the work as a stronger embodiment of nature and to remind us of the striking beauty it holds. All of the feathers for each piece have meaning as well feathers have a healing an alpha nature. In many cultures of the world, bird feathers have profound meaning and significance in the spiritual life of people. Each feather, of each piece has a different meaning, and each feather has within it the energies of the bird it comes from.

Feathers are a natural conductor for energy. They add a higher vibration to the environment around you. A majority of the feathers are from male birds. They use their ornate, diverse, and colourful feathers to attract partner and to mark territory. Thus feathers radiate Alpha in the best possible way, via beauty.