WESTERN BUREAU:
WHILE CREATIVITY expressed through visual arts is not a vocation pursued by many young people in Jamaica, for 36-year-old Christopher Scott, it has been his passion from childhood.
Scott, a native of Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, is now sharing his passion as a classroom teacher, and he wants his students to know that art can give them both financial and interpersonal rewards.
“I try to encourage my students and to let them know that visual arts is a career that you can enjoy, and that you can make a good living from,” said Scott. “Almost every class I go to, I show them stuff and let them know that it is not just a way to pass time; it is a really good career, and it is so much fun working with people.
“The best part of it that I tell my students is that when you have customers smiling because they are pleased with your work, there is nothing more fulfilling than that,” he added.
Scott, whose art pieces include abstract works and wall-painted murals, got his start in art when he was a student at Savanna-la-Mar Primary School. That interest followed him to Manning’s School, and later to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.
“I started drawing, and realising I had a love for art, in my primary-school days. Going to high school, I did a course, where they teach you how to draw, paint, and so forth, and I got grade one in CSEC. Then I decided to go to Edna Manley to further my studies,” said Scott, who named fellow artists Peter Peart and Lennox Coke as persons who inspired him.
“I have been creating art ever since then, and I have a registered business now, Christopher Scott Arts, in Llandilo, Westmoreland,” explained Scott. “I am trying to get my name out there, worldwide … I have been attending art shows and art festivals.”
“Since I started the business, I have been adding students to my catalogue as I go along, and have been working in terms of getting them jobs, too. When I have big projects, I normally have past students coming in to give me a hand,” added Scott.
Projects that Scott has done include the painting of a mural at the maternal and child health department of the Type V Clinic in Montego Bay, St James, and a weather station sign at Lashings Beach Club in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth.
In addition to his art business, Scott also showcases his creative muscles as a visual arts teacher at the Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland, which gives him ample opportunity to pass on his love for art to his students.
According to Scott, the biggest obstacle he faces as an art teacher is the current get-rich-quick mentality of many young people, who seemingly has no appreciation for hard work.
“The main obstacle is that these students nowadays, they want quick money and they do not want to put in the work,” said Scott. “When I tell them that it is going to take a while before you can develop a good art catalogue, they want to come to the easiest way to make money.
“Those that actually have the interest in art, they do it. I am very pleased that I have students who listen to what I say, and carry out what I say,” said Scott.
