Conversations with Scott A. Trimble

Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott A. Trimble.

Hi Scott A., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always enjoyed reading, and so, too, writing. However, for me words always arrived in packages, replete with a beginning, middle and an end, so writing held little mystery. In 1981 I started searching for creative sparks in mixed media sculptures and in painting. My lack of experience led to joyful surprises, and I picked up the pace with my painting till the mid 90s, when I sat down the brush because I was not satisfied with my drawing skills. After a half hearted attempt at improvement, I focused elsewhere for 17 years when I had the great fortune to watch a documentary about an inner city youth art program, during which a young man described the pleasure he found in making art: “you can do anything you want because there are no rules.”

I took him for his word, grabbed a brush and started painting with complete abandon from 2011 through 2025, where I currently am paused by back pain.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I was 12 years old, I was in awe of this kid who could really draw. He set the bar for representational image-making, and I could never approximate his standard. But I let go of the fear of failure at age 55 because I missed the creative endeavor too much, and so with little fanfare , I started with geometric abstracts, then landscapes, then birds (which were well received), then figurative work. I thought I was just painting people, but apparently what I consider to be people are not always universally recognized. Still, I did not let that stop me from enjoying the activity of painting. Instead, I paid attention to the varying responses and decided that there were 3 roughly equal categories of viewers – – detractors, supporters, and the disinterested. It is this rule of thirds that enables me to paint carefree.

As I mentioned previously I’m currently bedbound and hopeful to return to the walking world soon.

In January 2024 I was delighted to have one of my photographs licensed by Warner Brothers and Apple TV for the set of the show, Shrinking. Watching the program was very informative: Harrison Ford’s character has Parkinson’s disease, and I quickly understood why my beautiful friend Sharon had noted mobility issues which I had not yet recognized, issues that became increasingly evident the following month during my routine annual physical. So as I lay here on my back holding the phone in my shaking hands above my head and dictating these words, I am hoping to woo multiple galleries and artists to participate in a fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease; time will tell for certain; however I am confident.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
A long standing member of the 100-year-old Los Angeles Art Association, I also have served as a paralegal at top-tier law firms for the past 44 years, 22 of which have been with Swerdlow Florence Sanchez Swerdlow and Wimmer, where clients are greeted by my painting, Everyone Will See What They Choose. Likewise Zoom callers to a certain Toyota Motors Corp. executive encounter my work, Stop Washing the Dishes, We Can’t Hear the TV.

The Eighties, 90s

My.very first art sale was a small oil painting which was heavily influenced by Picasso in 1985, to an attorney at Shea & Gould (Shea Stadium was named after attorney Bill Shea), and soon thereafter Jamie Richlin, the wife of another Shea attorney, mounted my first exhibition, of three large scale works, at Phyllis Morris design in Beverly Hills (I later settled a bill from my therapist, Rocky Wilson, with one of those paintings, The Wheel of Life). My great friend string artist Eric Goldstein introduced me to Mayzone Critchley, whose Art Garage got me an exciting mention in Exposure magazine, and sold a substantial number of my early 1980s work to the actor who had portrayed the Marlboro man, notably a 1984 sculpture of my credit cards asea in thick oil paint flowing out of a box (I used the money to pay off one of the cards. Yoshihisa Shoshihara, Founder and CEO of Prometheus Publishing, bought three paintings hung at an eyeglass store on Melrose, came for a studio visit and shipped to Kobe Japan on the next flight out what constituted most of my then extant work, including my iconic triptych The Night of the Blue Light, a paean to simultaneous orgasms. I’m told that the works now are installed in a hotel owned by his son Hisa.

The Oughts Teens & 20s

It is 5:30 am and what I had written since 2 am was automatically discarded as too much info. Next time we can catch up, John Cantu, Emiko Wake, Peter Mays. Raul Tripthana Jodi Bonassi. Peggy Siberia, Ben Zask, Dulce Stein,, Carl Shubbs, Amy Kapps, Shana Nys Dambrot, Osceola Refetoff, Juri Koll, Lena Moross, Genie Davis, Mishelle Moross, Nina Zack Ladden, max Presneil,Jodi Bonassi. John Cantu. Emiko Wake. Peggy Siverr. Ben Zask. Jan Ziegler. Mark Walker.
Joshua Elias, Tish Larmmle.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I have a very simple outlook on painting: it brings me tremendous joy. Am I lucky to be able to paint? Yes of course.

Contact Info:

• Website: scottatrimble.com

Image Credits
Photos by Osceola Refetoff