Faith in Literature and Art l Ruminate Magazine

Scott Kolbo: The Heavy Man

We are a funny species. My work is first and foremost about humor—the comedy and tragedy I see in the world around me (and most importantly, in myself). My work springs out of the tradition of satire, which I became interested in as a young man after looking through many, many art books in the library and realizing that I was most attracted to prints with funny looking people in them.

I create drawings, prints, installations, and projections where fragments of reality mix with exaggerated environments and grotesque characters. I believe that despite our best efforts to look important, rational, and dignified, we all make fools of ourselves in the end. I like to think of my work as an investigation into the ways that this tendency manifests itself in our individual lives and in society as a whole. I’m a big believer in the notion that we learn something important when we laugh at ourselves, and that we should be fearless when we evaluate the society we are all complicit in creating for each other.

The works included in this issue of Ruminate are mostly about a character I created a few years ago called “Heavy Man.” He is an exaggerated alter ego who becomes spontaneously heavy from time to time when the weight of this life becomes too much for him. It’s almost a reverse superpower—a curse rather than a blessing—something that leaves him stranded in tragic yet comedic situations.

Scott Kolbo was born in Othello, Washington, in 1972, grew up in Boise, Idaho, and later moved to Seattle. He became obsessed with art after spending countless hours sketching on the back of the church bulletin as a kid, and drawing continues to play a dominant role in his work. After living and going to college in the Seattle/Portland area, he moved back to Boise to study art and received a BFA in painting and printmaking from Boise State University in 1996. He received an MFA in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000. He currently lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family and works as a professor at Whitworth College. His interests revolve around the study of culture, aesthetics, literature, film, and the tension between religious faith and contemporary art. Scott exhibits his work locally, nationally, and in web-based formats. You can view more of his work on his website: http://www.scottkolbo.com/.