Illinois College Contemporary Art Gallery

Allison G. What made you want to be an artist?

Andy Scott: I guess it was a number of factors: supportive parents and good teachers when I was a kid, the architectural heritage of my home city (Glasgow), and basically being good at art as a school subject.  Plus I was poor at maths so couldn't become an architect (!)

AG: What made you want to work with metal?

AS: When I tried steel work at art school I was hooked.  I enjoy bringing life to an unyielding material. I enjoy the challenge of making it look easy, when it's anything but.

AG: How long have you been working with metal as your medium?

AS: My first attempt was as art school, but left it and did clay modelling and casting for a number of years.  But I guess I re-engaged with it not long after graduating, say around the early 90's. My first major commission which I carried out in steel was in 97.

AG: Was there another medium that you first started creating with that eventually lead to the large-scale sculptures?

AS: See above, clay modelling and casting into cement, resin and bronze.

AG: What drives your desire to create?

AS: Thats not actually an easy question to answer.  I don't really have time to think about motivation.  It's just my job and I get my sleeves rolled up and get on with it.  People ask me to make things, and sometimes pay me quite well to do so (sometimes not so well!).  The very basic answer is, like every artist (or every sensible artist) I have to make a living. But philosophically I enjoy transforming spaces…  making a space into a place. Elevating the mundane, rather than celebrating the mundane. I enjoy the sense of pride my sculptures evoke in local people, or sometimes in private collectors.

AG: When you say transforming space into a place, do you try to accomplish that by putting yourself out there through the sculpture for people to interact and form a connection with? Or are you creating a sculpture that engages people and forces them to interact with it and then those interactions become the “place” that you mention?

AS: A bit of both. Inevitably a "bit of me" is in the sculptures, as I make almost all of them myself, by hand. And I do try to make sculptures which engage people, but I certainly don't intend to force an interaction. I would rather invite an interaction through the accessible form and narrative of the sculpture. If folks want to delve deeper into it over repeated visits or viewing, then that's grand. Many of my sculptures have multiple meanings in their pose, the location they face, hand gestures, props and symbols, breed of horse, etc etc. But if folks are busy getting on with their lives, and whizz past the sculptures at 70mph and simply see a nice big horse, woman, stag, (or whatever) and it brightens their day, then I've done my job.

AG: Did you grow up around horses, and are they the reason you were then commissioned to create the Kelpies? Because from watching the process of the Kelpies being built on your website, I feel like they command the attention and force the viewer to spend time with the details and appreciate basically how massive they are.

AS: No, I didn't grow up around horses.  I grew up in a very working class inner city urban environment.  I fell into the subject matter after completing the first large scale equine piece, which led to other commissions and in effect snowballed into becoming one of my main themes.  I do enjoy the effect the material has on the viewer, not only with The Kelpies. My work is unashamedly about craft, dexterity, draftsmanship and skill. When people look at them closely, they can see that they were made through hard work, not mechanised processes, and that they are an achievement of skill and tenacity. This also encourages the viewer to relate to them... Or so I hope!