Indie Spotlight: Questions
HUCK meets the horror-obsessed illustrator with a very strange collection.
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Much like the Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby and its affiliation with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the town of Whitstable on the northern Kent coast also boasts a horror pedigree, be it as the home of the late Hammer horror film star Peter Cushing.
It’s a fact that’s dropped by 21-year-old illustrator and fellow Whitstable native, Craig Scott AKA Questions. And it’s not just classic horror films that this keen skateboarder loves. When entering his home in Peckham, south London, you immediately notice his collections of the weird and wonderful from animal feet and shrunken skulls to a jar of his own toe nail clippings! Not exactly the possessions of your everyday Camberwell College of Arts student, but Craig Scott really isn’t your everyday character.
“I collect many things. [It’s] a trait I have picked up from my father,” remarks Scott about his bizarre collection. “My main interests are insects, bones skulls and foetuses. I have lots of feet of birds, preserved animals, lizards and bats. Growing up I always remember collections of insects in museums and the way everything was so precise and perfect. I think this is what I aim for in my work to gain the recognition of craftsmanship.”
Scott got sponsored up by London-based independent skate company Lovenskate when he was just 16. In less than two years, he was designing stickers, t-shirts and board graphics for them. It was around this time that he started Road Kill, a ‘zine created with his friend Dan Singer. They sold it at skateparks, along with t-shirts and hoodies that are still sported by many a locals. Since then, Craig’s talent have been commissioned by the likes of Heroin Skateboards, Antiz and Kingpin magazine.
Questions' work space.
His weird and wonderful collection.
But what of the strange moniker? “It was [my friend] Dom Perkins who gave me the name as a kid,” remembers Scott. “Growing up, I wanted to know everything about skateboarding: What wheels Neil Blender rode? Who was the first person to do a bean plant? He was my god and in a way he still is.”
As a South London local and a second-year illustration student, he spends most dry days ripping on his board down at Stockwell skate park with the likes of Fos, the owner of Heroin and Landscape Skateboards, and fellow illustrator, French. You see, Scott isn’t exactly the biggest fan of art schools. “It’s a real fake place,” he says frankly. “It’s more of a statement to go to art school. I know so many trendies that will read this and be like ‘yeah that kid is true’ but what’s the deal? I wanted to go to art school to make work and learn, not to do loads of drugs and dress like an early nineties throwback.”
As for Craig’s future beyond study, he’s reluctant to think too far ahead. “I don’t think people should think about leaving university too much. Why wish your days away?” he says. But he confesses that he does hold on to one dream far flung from a pencil and paper. “I think about wanting to become a bare knuckle boxer sometimes,” he says. “My father was a Romany gypsy so he was real good at making money. He sold horses then he would be working in car lots and scrap metal then fixing and making tools for people. There weren’t many things my father could not do, but what he was best for was leaving a lasting impression on people. He was one of the most respected people I’ve ever known.”
This admiration for his father is the driving force behind Craig’s motivation to achieve. With a new commission by independent London art gallery Concrete Hermit to produce an artwork for this year’s Pick Me Up graphic arts fair in Somerset House, central London and talk of a new issue of Road Kill, the future looks good. Says Scott: “I don’t think I will ever stop drawing, it’s just something that’s comes so naturally.”
More horror emphemera.
Representing Lovenskate.
One of Questions' designs for Lovenskate.
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Indie Spotlight: Questions (text) by Connor O'Brien is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (4)
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a true skateboarder,an insparation and a rad lad always and ever.