Michael Scott Davis

MFA | Studio

ARTIST BIO

I am a United States Navy Veteran and contemporary artist currently pursuing my Master of Fine Arts with a focus in Sculpture at the University of Notre Dame. Honorably serving as a Corpsman, I deployed on numerous worldwide operations and humanitarian missions providing critical medical aid and global health education. Many of these extraordinary life experiences continue to play a foundational role in my creative practice. Central to my current research, I employ the figurative form. For me, the figure is a timeless art historical object and powerful ontological tool with the capability of being profoundly intellectual and naturally relatable. It is a complex conceptual vehicle that offers an opportunity to introduce you to yourself as well as explore new thoughts about various discoveries, relationships, cultures, and perspectives. Personally and professionally, I aspire to continue my love of art-making, medicine, and community outreach. Artistically, I hope to encourage a renewed sense of human compassion, benevolence, and oneness.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Synonymy seeks to honor human individualism while simultaneously recognize a limited sense of collectivism and universalism. My intent is to express human equality and communicate larger ideas of singularity, unification, and oneness. Our primal sameness, our harmonious synonymy is our distinctive individuality. Our differences and uniqueness categorically consolidate us as one. For every human, bodily vulnerability and its inevitable decay are a fact of life. Thus, no body ever escapes death. For every human being there exist unanswerable questions that defy humanity’s best intellectual investigation or intensive reasoning. Answers or solutions seem to not exist yet. In the end, we are all simply human. My creative research examines the minute intricacies of the biological human body, its vessel-like qualities, and certain unknown and enigmatic ideas that may intersect it. The sculptural series Synonymy is comprised of three kinetic mixed media, life-sized human figures. Each sculpture, aptly titled after its respective model, seeks to render personal identity, energetically capture the body’s fluctuating homeostatic characteristics, and manifest a contemplative internal space that is perceptually liminal, infinitely volumetric, and abstract. My hope is to generate a subjective, introspective, and empathic visual art experience that ultimately alludes to the inevitable intertwined, interdependent, and communal nature of humankind and life. 

Synonymy (Exhibition Overview)

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Four High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 2020

DAVID

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Two High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30 x 30 x 81 inches | 2019

David

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Two High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30 x 30 x 81 inches | 2019

David

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Two High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30 x 30 x 81" | 2019

Carolyn (front)

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Two High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30x30x79" | 2019

Carolyn (side)

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Two High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30x30x79" | 2019

Carolyn

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Two High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30x30x79" | 2019

Denny (front)

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Four High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30x24x93” | 2020

Denny (side)

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Four High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30x24x93” | 2020

Denny

Silver Foil Two-Way Mirrored Window Film, Steel, Wood, Arduino
Microprocessor, Relay Computer Board, Four High-Pressure Fans, and
Power Strip | 30x24x93” | 2020