Local Character: Nomadic Artist Scotty Schafer Urges Others To Follow Their Dreams
Posted November 13, 2009 3:20 pm.
Last Updated July 27, 2015 8:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Story and photos by Michael Talbot, CityNews.ca
It seemed initially like there must have been aesthetic motives behind Scotty Schafer’s decision not to stretch his canvasses, which are scattered and sprawled around his makeshift studio at Rolly’s on Ossington like other-worldly animal pelts.
The venue’s precarious status doesn’t worry Schafer, because he’s not planning on sticking around for long, and as he explains between dabs of brilliant colour, unframed canvasses are remarkably easy to roll up when it’s time to roll on.
For Schafer, Toronto is the first stop in a year-long adventure that started when he decided to leave the comforts of home in Vancouver, as well as the security of a steady income as a design consultant, for the unpredictability and thrill of life as a nomadic artist.
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” he explains, his clothes stained with assorted hues. “All of this for me was based on experiences, one after the other leading me to a point. You could be as old or young as you want, if you can manifest truly what it is you need to do and be passionate about what it is you do, you’re just going to do it. I tell people, and I forget who wrote it, that the greatest loves and accomplishments always take the greatest risk.”
“The inspiration will come to you.”
He’s found plenty of inspiration in Toronto, as well as support from the local art community.
“I became very humbled by the art community here and I know that wherever I go it will be the same, art has a way of giving itself.”
“I see a definite energy here,” he adds excitedly. “Very, very colourful, there is this street energy here that you don’t really get in Vancouver. In Vancouver you really have to search for the energy, once you find that energy it can be very dynamic and cultural on its own, but it’s definitely a search. In Toronto you walk out to the street and you feel it, you feel the intensity.”
Schafer’s next stop will be Mexico, where he plans on spending the winter painting on the beach, followed by a few months in Norway, then possibly Japan.
“The idea is to integrate myself away from English to remote areas, and go from an inner-city place that I’m very used to and a very cultural place where I feel the energy, to just places that will spontaneously come to me.”
He’s relying largely on sales of his work to finance his travels, and although his latest show in Toronto, ‘Guilty By Association’, was successful, he admits his new-found lifestyle can be stressful.
“It is one of the scariest things because people love to have the cheque, to know that they’ve got security coming in…It’s a pretty scary ride, it’s like a roller coaster, you’ve got to trust that the mechanics of that roller coaster is going to take you around those crazy spins and rolls and all those flips, and you’re going to come out in the end in one piece.”
He also has an unyielding faith that things will turn out right
“It wouldn’t make any sense to manifest all of this, meet all of these wonderful people and then the universe decides to drop you on your ass and you’re asking your friends for quarters,” he laughs.
Schafer isn’t sure where his journey will end, but he has an ultimate plan in the works.
He wants to write a book about his journey, hoping it would inspire others to follow their dreams.
“I meet so many people who really want to do what they love to do, but for some reason they can’t do it, and I think if I could write a book about this process it would be really good for a lot of people to let a lot of stuff go and to continue with their passion.”
“People need to be told that they can paint and write and they can dance and sing no matter how old they are, no matter what level of education or experience, that you can do that.”
