Eve Van Scott

Your work feels like a blend of myth, fashion, and dream. Where do your stories usually begin—in the costume, the character, or the landscape?

They always start with a muse. There’s a spark of inspiration when I see a unique expression flicker across someone’s face or a distinct mannerism of theirs. I let myself float in their current for a moment until I’m led to a color, creature, or environment that further defines the feeling. After that, they become more like compositional puzzles, designed to create balance and cohesion throughout the entire collection.

Eve Van Scott | The Moth Queen | 2024

Many of your characters seem caught “between worlds.” What draws you to this in-between space, and what does it represent to you?

At their inception, fantasy seemed much more comforting and attractive than reality. Visualization had become a major part of my daily life, and the worlds that revealed themselves to me were beautiful — and probably even addictive to visit. These places were new and foreign but blended with my subconscious, which allowed me to explore exciting settings while also discovering unseen parts of myself.

Eve Van Scott | The Milkmaid | 2024

You studied fashion design—how has that background shaped the way you approach painting and composition?

Studying fashion included a lot of collection design. Mine seemed to always go a more fantastical route and faceted characters started to peek through their looks. When viewing the paintings and observing the different personas together, you begin to notice a common style or recurring trends in that world, as well as where certain personalities emerge through their own unique expressions. I love how fashion expands the realm in that way. Early illustrated Vogue covers along with La Vie Parisienne and Harper’s Bazaar also played a huge role in the forming of the compositions themselves.

Eve Van Scott | The Fish Garden | 2024

There’s a theatrical quality to your art. Do you see your paintings as scenes from a larger narrative?

Yes. They all have their own storylines and they all weave together quite beautifully. It’s something I hope to move forward with telling in a different medium someday. But, for now, I find it fascinating to see what stories people come up with for them on their own. It’s extra fun to see what overlaps.

Eve Van Scott | Onyx Beach | 2024

Symbolism appears to play a large role in your work. Do you use recurring symbols intentionally, or do they emerge intuitively?

Intuitively definitely. The deeper meanings seem to connect afterwards. In the beginning, I’m usually focused on the painting’s visual attraction and that’s more intuitive. It’s intriguing when the emotions or energy of the character start to align with the other imagery in the scene. It’s rarely intentional.

Eve Van Scott | Eve | 2024

How do costume design and painting inform each other in your practice? Do you work on them simultaneously or in separate creative phases?

They’re all a little different. For some, I had the entire character dressed and posed before I even knew what was going on around them. It just depended on what idea would flow to me first. I really resonate with what David Lynch said about catching ideas as if they’re fish. Focused intention, and then you wait.

Eve Van Scott | Arachnette | 2024

What role do dreams or altered states of consciousness play in your creative process?

Huge. Most of these paintings, either before or during the process, I was visited by that person in a dream. Some were even dressed as they are in the paintings which is still astounding to me. It’s unclear what version of them I interacted with and whether or not they existed before or after the paintings themselves; I’m not quite sure. But, just the idea of it makes me smile.