Conversations on Culture & Money
We’re shooting a video for our good pal, Bunny Matthews, who celebrates his birthday and the return of the Antichrist this evening by playing with his Playboys. Party with us tonight and stay tuned for the video. This is how PSP kicks off Mardi Gras…
CEO and design principal for NOYO, Ayo Scott and New Orleans legend Bunny Matthews (Vic & Natly, Nint’Wardica) sit down with host Brian Boyles to discuss the business of making art in the Crescent City.
Recorded at the Louisiana Humanities Center, 3.15.2012
John Scott, celebrated sculptor and father to Ayo Scott, had a deep connection with New Orleans. A native to the city, he found inspiration in New Orleans culture and his community. Throughout his years sculpting and teaching at Xavier University, he constructed many sculpture and art pieces in various public parks and museums in every neighborhood. The map below shows the locations of John Scott’s work. Green Tabs are museums and may require paid admission. Blue tabs are parks that are free and open to the public.
View Bolted to the Ground: John Scott’s Work in New Orleans in a larger map
View Bolted to the Ground: John Scott’s Work in New Orleans in a larger map
Bunny Matthews is no ordinary artist, nor should his artwork be paralleled with traditional cartoons or comic strips. Bunny finds his inspiration from regional current events as well as stereotypes associated with the New Orleans lifestyle. On the one hand, Bunny takes the most prevalent news headliners and molds them into satirical yet communicative masterpieces. Other pieces poke fun at Big Easy themes from heavy drinking and “Fat Tuesday,” to exaggerated creole accents and NOLA’s decadent cuisine, each piece perfectly balanced between comedy and social commentary.
Both thought and symbolism lie between the relaxed strokes and silly one-liners. Bunny, when defending his artwork, explained how the most successful cartoon artists are not only naturally creative, but proficient writers—writers who can tell an entire story in just a few short words.
Therefore, when it comes to sharing the work of a distinctive artist like Bunny Matthews, it is no surprise he accepted the offer to display his work at the Arthur Roger Gallery of the New Orleans Warehouse District, occupying a 5,100 square foot space with three separate exhibition areas. The gallery can be found on the corner of Julia St. and Constance in New Orleans own “Gallery Row.” The surrounding area resembles a modest version of New York City’s art scene (where the owner of Arthur Roger Gallery actually briefly opened a second gallery). While the exterior of the gallery mostly blends in with it’s neighboring exhibits, the interior is constantly flooded with a unique variety of artwork. The gallery is dedicated to featuring artwork from both the most recognized New Orleans talent as well as artists from around the country. Notable artists which previously collaborated with Arthur Roger include Robert Gordy, Ida Kohlmeyer, Charles Arnoldi, Derek Boshier and Roger Brown. Other great work by Robert Colescott, R. M. Fisher, Peter Halley, Robert Hull, Leonard Koscianski, Clarence Laughlin, Peter Saul, James Surls, Bruce Weber, Joel-Peter Witkin and Philip Wofford has also skimmed the walls of this distinguished gallery. The displays are also not limited to traditional painting and drawing pieces but also feature digital, sculptural and photographic artwork.
In addition to finding the most unique artists for his gallery, Roger often develops individual relationships with many of the artists. In the case of Bunny Matthews, Arthur was actually responsible for the suggestion and inspiration of one of Bunny’s most famous pieces—besides that of his Vic n’ Nat’ly characters—known as “Nin’t Wardica,” an 8×15 foot mural reminiscent of Picasso’s “Guernica.”
Below you will find several photographs of the current on display at the Arthur Roger Gallery.
For more information on Bunny’s exhibition at the Gallery last year and the photographs above, visit arthurrogergallery.com. To learn more about Bunny’s past artwork as well as future exhibitions, visit bunnymatthews.com.
To get to know Bunny and hear about his life as an artist in new Orleans, come to The People Say Project on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 6pm at the Louisiana Humanities Center at 5:00. Find more information on our homepage.
New Orleans artist Bunny Matthews is probably best known for his long running comic strip Vic and Nat’ly. The comic follows the characters Vic and Natl’y, two ninth ward residents who speak in the distinctive Y’at dialect of New Orleans. The comedy of the cartoon comes directly out of the language, culture, and current affairs of New Orleans.
First appearing in the Times Picayune, Vic and Nat’ly have evolved from being just comic strip characters, to be a deeply ingrained part of New Orleans’ culture. Bunny has taken the Vic and Nat’ly out of the funny pages and put them into a number of New Orleans’ businesses, museums, and even an insectarium.
Matthews’ drawings are now used as both advertising and public art in and around New Orleans. It is likely that the almost everyone in the city has seen a Vic and Nat’ly cartoon even if they don’t know it. The Audubon Insectarium has a series written and illustrated by Matthews called “A Roach’s History of New Orleans,” which tells the city’s history from the perspective of cockroaches. (If you want to know more about “A Roach’s History of New Orleans” click here.) Matthews’ has illustrated for companies such as Zatarain’s, Toyota, Coca-Cola, and Barq’s. But the place you’ve probably seen Bunny’s work is on the side of a Leidenheimer’s bakery truck, showing Vic and Nat’ly chowing down on a po-boy.
Matthews has also painted murals for the Louisiana State museum and in the Arthur Roger Gallery. He also has does the album artwork for the band, The Graves Brother Deluxe.
His art can also be found in many of the city’s businesses and restaurants. The most famous of which if the series of comics he produced for Harkin’s Florist. The comic series, which is still being produced, show Vic and Nat’ly celebrating the season with flowers from the Harkin’s.
Harkin's Valentines Comic
The the first of these comics came out during Christmas of 1981, and they’ve been coming out ever since. Even the more obscure holidays, such as Secretary’s Day, have their own comic.
By making so much of his art available for the public to see in New Orleans, Bunny has cemented his art into the fabric of the city so completely that it is now inseparable from its culture.
Jonas Griffin; New Orleans; March 2011
Forget lilting Oak trees, St. Charles Avenue or Bourbon Street, and wrought-iron balconies. Bunny Matthews’ New Orleans is a step beyond any tourist’s conception or the Uptowner’s picturesque view. As presented in his “Vic and Nat’ly” cartoons, Matthews illustrates a culture of the city whose people are, according to Bunnymatthews.com, an “oft-neglected slice of New Orleans…parochial, salt-of-the-earth denizens.”
A combination of laughing-at and laughing-with cranky Vic and brazen Nat’ly gives this strip its special place in local humor. One almost has to read aloud his cartoons to make sense of the warped spellings that communicate his characters’ unique Yat accent. Example: “Mus’ be hawd woik— paintin’ nekkid goils all day!” And certainly much is lost if readers don’t voice the strips because Matthews’ effective and whimsical dialogue can transport you to the heart and soul of the city. Matthews describes the people of the Ninth Ward, who inspire him for the cartoon; “The people who never left…the real die-hard New Orleanians.” In the early 1980’s, Matthews spent much of his time in the Ninth Ward, delivering records and meeting the people who lived there.
With this eye into the Yat subculture of New Orleans, Matthews confronts tragedy in his Nint’Wardica (2010). This painting is an ekphrasistic response to Picasso’s Guernica. Matthews reinvents this classic work to represent the city’s recent pains.
Matthews uses shades of black and white to expose New Orleans’ ills to its people, an audience that has been historically divided along such color lines. The mural, painted on a tapestry of Tyvek, gives the people of New Orleans a chance to see the city’s tragedies contained in a work of art; Nint’Wardica is an elegy. Though New Orleans has proved a resilient spirit, the ability to rejoice and never loose pride in itself, Matthews’ painting offers an opportunity to reflect, mourn and ultimately inspire in spite of the seriousness.
Beyond the initial orientation of the cubist graphics, sadness and at times out-right horror rise into view: a murdered young black man, Louisiana’s regal state symbol of the pelican drenched in oil, dead fish. With the presence of Vic and Nat’ly, the first with a flashlight as in a storm and the second as curvaceous as ever, the work is tender, too. These beloved characters of the po-boy shop aren’t kept static in their comic strip, but they have been drawn into the tough realities we all share.
Suggested Reading:
“Vic and Nat’ly” Archive: http://bunnymatthews.com/archives/portfolio-item/vicandnatly
“Black and White,” feature Story with Matthews: http://bunnymatthews.com/archives/portfolio-item/blackandwhite
New Orleans artist Bunny Matthews has contributed a series of illustrations to The Audubon Zoo’s Insectarium. The illustrations give a history of New Orleans from the point of view of an often over looked resident of the city: cockroaches. The series is called “A Roach’s History of New Orleans” and spans the city’s entire history–from its discovery by Bienville, to the invention of jazz, and of course hurricane Katrina. “A Roach’s History of New Orleans” is a funny and original look at some of the major events in the city’s history told in Bunny’s signature artistic style, check out the entire series in our gallery:
Nint' Wardica, Bunny Matthews, New Orleans 2010. Oil on Tyvek
On April 26, 1937 one hundred thousand pounds of high explosive and incendiary bombs rained down on the village of Guernica, killing one-third of the population, sixteen hundred civilians. 73 years later, on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded killing 11 workers and releasing 205.8 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
These disastrous events began a devastating ripple effect that began with those directly affected and soon spread to reach the world. These ripples traveled through many mediums, in the case of the oil spill they even traveled quite literally in ripples on the ocean’s surface, and in the case of Guernica they traveled in a wave of war that swept Europe, terrorizing civilian populations.
But one of the most important ways the reverberations of these occurrences reached the corners of the Earth was through the hearts of the millions who heard about them and sympathized with the suffering. This sympathy can be awakened in many ways, perhaps a story on the news, or a photograph of the scene, but even before such things existed humans relied on art to commemorate misery.
So in these troubled times, it is not surprising that the insight of an artist gave face to the horror, in a way no newspaper could. Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica not only became a memorial to the blood spilled on that April day, but an enduring challenge to all those who see it to truly consider the cost of war. 73 years later, Bunny Matthews took this challenge and twisted it into Nint’ Wardica, a modern glimpse of a new face of war, one that is raging right here in Louisiana.
One of the most prominent figures in Picasso’s Guernica is a bull that peers out at us from the left hand corner of the mural. Few things are thought to be more Spanish than the tradition of bullfighting. These regal creatures are placed in opposition to some of the country’s most highly honored and respected celebrities in fights that test both strength and cunning. This bull can be seen to stand for this tradition and the power of Spain’s culture. But the realities of bullfighting are much more revealing about what might be behind this particular bull’s hauntingly human eyes.
The bulls are bred for the express purpose of fighting; the ones that show the most ferocity are chosen to be sent to the bullfights. Once there they are observed, aggravated, and stabbed in crucial muscles causing weakening and blood loss until the matador enters to make his celebrated kill. By the time the slaughter actually happens, the bull has lost significant amounts of blood and strength and the matador’s kill is just the final straw. The bull is not exactly an innocent victim in this charade, several matadors have died in the ring, and for a while more horses (used to carry the riders that make the initial stabs) than bulls died in the ring. But the fact remains that the bulls’ motives for attack lie in provocation and fear while the people’s lie in their thirst for blood and entertainment. The attack on Guernica was a similar match up.
The Nazis dropped bomb after bomb on a civilian population whose village had no strategic military value. When they made their final slaughter, after over three hours of bombardment, those who weren’t dead were hopelessly demoralized, called “the greatest success” in a secret report from Berlin. The Nazis were not threatened by the men, women, and children living in the cultural capital of the Basque people. They took an opportunity to practice their new blanket-bombing tactics on a group of people whose historical culture favors independence and democratic ideals, making them a threat to Francisco Franco’s overthrow of the democratic government. Much like the once strong bull depicted in Picasso’s painting, Guernica was run through without warning and left to its blood and suffering.
In Nint’ Wardica, the solemn bull’s counterpart is a crab, dripping with oil, next to the smoking rig that brought that plague upon it. Much like bullfighting is for spain, seafood is a cultural pillar of the Gulf Coast, particularly when it comes to crustaceans like the crab. Crabs and crawfish not only offer delicious nutrition but a wonderful activity around which to center socialization. Crab and crawfish boils are occasions used to celebrate, commemorate, and intoxicate, they have strengthened the fabric of Southern food culture and formed a mouth watering institution. Behind this institution is an industry, one that we recently found out rests on very trepid waters.
The Deepwater Horizon explosion not only killed eleven rig workers but also put a death threat on Southern Louisiana’s 2.4 billion dollar seafood industry. Now it is estimated that from 2011 to 2013 the industry will suffer a $115 million to $172 million loss in gross revenue. This will come on top of the losses already incurred from the closing of the fisheries, the countrywide hike in seafood prices, and the impact on restaurants that rely on customers who were too scared to consume gulf coast products even after they were deemed safe. That crab has not only been poisoned, it too has been irreparably demoralized.
Perhaps there is no better way to express deep soul wrenching anguish than with the image of a mother losing a child. For centuries viewers’ hearts have been wrenched by the incredible sorrow so exquisitely expressed in Michelangelo’s Pieta. True to its name the sculpture exhume pity from all those who see it. Picasso drew on this for his statement on the forfeitures of war. The woman on the left side of the painting clutches the body of her lifeless child, appearing to howl up to the sky, from whence her nightmare came.
In Bunny Matthews’s version, the woman holds the form of a dead fish. She howls out for the people who saw their livelihoods coated in thick brown slime, and slowly suffocate like the creatures they depend on. The financial blow that the oil spill dealt to the area’s seafood industry workers put a glitch in a way of life that had been cultivated for generations. Many people lost family businesses reliant on the Gulf Coast ecosystem, others left the area in ruin, and still others are clinging for dear life to whatever slippery remnants are left, much like this woman clings to that dead fish. She may be mourning the loss of the fish in her hands and what it will mean for her life, or she may be mourning the loss of certainty in the future her children.
Although children are often said to be the epitome of innocence, sometimes animals are revered even more so. After Hurricane Katrina some studies showed that showing pictures of stranded or injured pets brought in more donations for relief than did those of humans in need. In bullfights, as was mentioned earlier, more horses used to die than bulls. The audience couldn’t bear to see their suffering so now they are equipped with protective padding. Perhaps for this reason, the central figure in Guernica is an innocent horse, run through with a javelin, screaming in pain. The wrenched position of the horse’s head suggests that the attack was unforeseen, and undeserved. So too were the people of Guernica shocked by the attack on their village, and stories of their pain, along with this painting, convinced the world that it was undeserved.
Who better to represent the undeserved pain of the Pelican State than the pelican herself? In Nint’ Wardica, she hovers center stage, oil coating her face and body. On the Louisiana flag is an image of a mother pelican sheltering the nest containing her offspring, she nurtures them by tearing out her own flesh to feed them. This symbol has been used by the Catholic Church as a symbol of Jesus’s self sacrifice and was adopted for the Louisiana flag for the same reason. Louisiana’s love affair with the pelican has been a long and tortured one.
Since the colonial days the Brown Pelican has stood as a representative of the state, but in the 1960s they disappeared from Louisiana, and very nearly from the world, due to use of the pesticide DDT. With the birth of the environmental movement DDT-use was banned from the United States and the pelican was reintroduced to the Pelican State from colonies in Florida. In 2009 they were removed from the endangered species list and considered resurrected. But the 2010 oil spill once again put their lives in peril. Hundreds of birds were found dead or dying, coated thick with oil. These creatures still hold a special place in the hearts of Louisiana natives and wildlife enthusiasts who are still working hard to ensure that these birds do rise again, as is called for by Nint’ Wardica.
-Margaret Sands
Citations:
http://bunnymatthews.com/archives/241
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/economic_impact_of_gulf_of_mex.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/us/05pelican.html?_r=1
http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html
(InthekNOwla) — NEW ORLEANS | Welcome back to InthekNOwla.com’s Entrepreneur Spotlight! We showcase the up and coming local talent that New Orleans has to offer and talk with these local professionals about their business ventures, goals, and aspirations. This time around we sat down with artist and entrepreneur, Ayo Scott of NOYO Designs, a locally owned and operated clothing line.
Ayo is a true product of a New Orleans upbringing. His father John T. Scott, a nationally recognized artist, art professor, and recipient of the prestigious McArthur Genius Award, was one of his greatest influences. As Ayo recalled his experiences growing up, he said, “I grew up immersed in the art scene. I’ve been called a studio rat because I was always around while my father was working. I casted bronze with him when I was only 6. He taught me all kinds of stuff like how to make paper out of blue jeans. He would write me letters on blue jean paper when I was in grad school. He would recycle anything and often he taught classes on how to make tools. He would walk into the classroom, dump out the garbage can and start with that. Growing up around him had a really big influence on me. He didn’t try to make me into an artist, but rather he gave me the opportunities and experiences to grow into my own.”
By the time Ayo was ten years old, he had seen and experienced many different places, people, and cultures as a result of traveling with his father. These experiences helped him to remain very open-minded and free-spirited. “I remember we would jump in the car and drive to various places for him to go install a piece he had completed. When I was like 12, we installed a piece in front of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. I was up on the scaffold with him tightening bolts and stuff as a little kid. He told me that this was an opportunity that I may never get again in life and that I should be a part of it. All of those things really played a big part in my development. As I said, he never pushed me to become an artist. He supported me with everything that I did and knowing you have someone behind you in no matter what you decide to do is a really big factor. The city itself was another of my greatest inspirations. As much as I traveled with my parents and as much as I enjoyed it, I always enjoyed coming back home more. There’s so much here that you can’t experience anywhere else. There’s something about the city that’s so magical to me. Something that’s lurking right below the surface; it’s almost metaphoric. It’s really not like this anywhere else and it’s crazy cause when you grow up around it, you think the world is like this, but it’s not.”
While in college, Ayo began doing some freelance graphic work, however, he became frustrated with the lack of creative expression that some clients wanted him to adhere to. Wanting more freedom, Ayo decided to try his hand at his own business venture. “I had started to make a name for myself as a half way decent artist while doing design work, but the problem that I kept running into was close-minded people wanting me to do exactly what they wanted even though I had clearer ideas about how to communicate their products visually. A lot of brands that I spent a lot of time on and put a lot of energy into never came to fruition because their ideas weren’t well thought out or they just refused to take advice from others. After a while, I was like, ‘I’m doing all this work for other people and it’s paying my bills, but there’s absolutely no reason that I shouldn’t be doing this for myself.’ Because of my love for New Orleans, I had gotten a tattoo of a fleur de lis with roots coming out of it in the middle of my chest and after the storm I wanted to do something to help the city and thought that it would be a great idea for a brand. In college, a few friends and I came up with a small t-shirt hustle called UNEO (Unlike N E Other). Out of a small investment, we made a decent profit and I was only hustling them out of my bookbag. So I decided that if I could do it then, I could definitely do it now on a much larger scale. I thought it would be a good way to bring some attention to New Orleans, get some money raised, and do some good in the city. The first shirt I came up with read ‘Show What it Means to Miss New Orleans.’ I was about to get those shirts printed and I thought to myself, ‘Man I got this great tattoo that says so much in itself. So I decided that I wanted to do that instead. I was patient and took my time to build the brand instead of just printing one t-shirt. And that’s what started the idea for NOYO.”
However, before Ayo was able to develop his brand fully, his father took ill. As he spent time at the hospital with his father, he worked diligently on NOYO, the name itself a play on words. Ayo explained, “Throughout my life I have been called ‘Yo’ for short by family and friends and New Orleans has always been affectionally known as ‘the NO.’ So I combined them and came up with NOYO Designs. I wanted something that spoke about me and my city and I thought that the fleur de lis with the roots said ‘this is where I am, this is where I’m from.’ It just kinda spoke to me. I really didn’t know what else to call it other than NOYO.” Thus, the NOYO clothing line was born, fusing fine art and computer graphics in order to capture the heritage, culture, and soul of New Orleans. “Showcasing images rooted in the New Orleans experience, NOYO represents the innovation, style, and subtle elegance synonymous with this historic city.” Designs range from the “Slangtree (Tree of Noyoisms)” and “NOYO Bounce” shirts to the “Frenchman,” “Say Red,” and “Satchmo” shirts. NOYO Designs includes clothing and accessories for men, women, and children…so there’s a little something for everybody.
To Ayo, his biggest accomplishment is the fact that he is still be in business. “My biggest accomplishment is that I haven’t gone belly up yet. Simple and plain! So many things fail and it’s so easy to give up. Prior to undertaking this venture, I had no experience doing this, so I’m pretty happy about how it’s been panning out. I made some connections with Wendell Pierce from Treme who introduced me to the costume director for the series. They loved my stuff and they told me that they wanted to get me some air time, but wasn’t sure where they would fit me in, be it this season or next season. I couldn’t ask for more than them just talking to me so I was completely grateful. One night, Wendell called me up and was like ‘Ayo, we’re filming tomorrow and I got a great scene and the perfect person to wear one of your shirts.’ I was like, ‘Tell me what I need to do.’ He told me to bring him the black and gold shirt in a men’s small. He couldn’t tell me that much about the scene, but he promised me that I was gonna be happy with it. So I did as he asked. It was the season finale and it turns out that they got John Boutte, who is my cousin by marriage and who did the opening song for the series, to wear my shirt. I got about two and a half minutes of screen time with a big obvious NOYO shirt on. I was on my honeymoon and I got a bunch of messages from people saying that they had seen my shirt and how emotional it made them. I got a lot of press from that. And that gave me a little bit of a push cause sometimes I have to catch myself wondering if everything is gonna pan out. But that definitely gave me inspiration to keep pushing through.”
For anyone considering becoming an entrepreneur , Ayo said, “The biggest advice I would give is to have faith. I don’t think that I’m as smart as half of my friends are, I don’t think that I have half the charisma. I think that I do have a ridiculous network of friends. I think that the biggest difference is I’m not afraid. I think failure is a part of life and I not scared to fail. I’m willing to put myself out there and see what happens. I always joke with my friends like, ‘Y’all are smarter than me or y’all are more talented than me.’ I consider myself an average designer and I’m okay with that. I’m always trying to be better, but I’m okay with being average. The main difference is that I’m willing to take that risk where many people aren’t. They’d rather feel safe and have a 9-5 than try something they’re unsure of. So you’ve got to have faith when starting a business. You can’t go into it thinking that it’s gonna pay off overnight and you can’t be willing to accept failure. Setbacks are going to happen, but honestly, every time we’ve had a setback it’s always worked out in our favor. That’s the silver lining in each dark cloud you’ve got to persevere. I’m learning as I go and if it wasn’t for the support of friends and family I wouldn’t have come this far.”
With great designs and talent, a willingness to succeed, and large support network of friends and family, it’s no wonder that NOYO is such a prominent and recognizable local brand. NOYO has been worn by some of New Orleans’ biggest names including Trombone Shorty and has been seen nationwide through HBO’s Treme phenomenon. But this is only the beginning for NOYO Designs. Ayo is in the process of redesigning the look and feel of NOYODesigns.com, so be on the lookout for the new site and for all sorts of new fashion concepts that this grassroots fashion line will be throwing at you. In the words of Ayo Scott…..Do you NOYO Rootz?
NOYO can be seen at Feet First in the French Quarter and Uptown and can be ordered online at www.NoyoDesigns.com
A year and a half into the Human Centered Communications Design Masters Program at Chicago’s Institute of Design, Ayo Scott decided to take some time off to hone his artistic and design skills. He spent this time focusing on a project that became the TSUNAMI. A show of 17 paintings mostly dedicated to those affected by the Tsunami of 2004. This show is a realization of many truths that surrounded that disaster and more to come. The show was displayed on August 7th 2005; less than one month before hurricane Katrina struck his hometown. (Can anybody say FORESHADOWING?) The self-described craftsman of painting, drawing and photography was born and raised in New Orleans. From as early as he can remember, Ayo found himself immersed in the art community of his city. He grew to love the studio time he spent working on “God-Knows-What” with his father, artist John T. Scott (40 year professor of art and recipient of the McArthur Genius Fellowship.) He never felt pressured to be an artist, but his family always provided him with opportunity, guidance and support for his endeavors from bronze casting to papermaking. Early on, Ayo had an appreciation of the human form and decided to study Biology at Xavier University of Louisiana. However, he soon realized that he was applying that appreciation in the wrong field. He made Art, with a focus in graphics, his major and kept Biology as a minor, earning his Bachelor of Arts in 2003. While Ayo prefers the classic feel and history of oil painting on board rather than canvas, and loves the simplicity of graphite drawings. He has been experimenting with acrylic-based pigments and ink drawings. Ayo has not limited himself to traditional artistic methods; but, he has become fluent in digital media – including digital photography, dramatic image manipulation and innovative typography. 
This typographic appreciation steered Scott into the design field more directly, as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign offer themselves as means of typographic manipulation. Scott credits artists such as Francis Bacon, Ron Bechet, Diego Rivera, Odd Nerdum, Lucien Freud, Raymond Saunders, and his father as influential in his own work. His passion for art and design is evident in his work. The intensity and vitality of his oil paintings especially speak to his growth as an artist. After graduating from Xavier, Ayo has spent his time, furthering his design career both academically and commercially. He has developed problem-solving solutions for his clients without compromising standards of good design or artistic integrity. He challenges himself to never get comfortable and to find new obstacles to overcome. Following the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, Scott resigned from the program at ID feeling as though his hands were tied in regards to helping out at home. . He moved back to his hometown, to help his oldest friend to rebuild their city by starting a contracting company and NOYO Designs.
