About

Scott Poole is a full-time painter, published poet, and cultural organizer based in the Pacific Northwest. Over a varied and eclectic career, he has served as a software developer, book festival director, short-order cook, janitor, and radio commentator. He is best known to regional and national audiences for his 11-year tenure as the official "House Poet" on Live Wire!, the nationally broadcast public radio variety show.

Poole's creative journey began with poetry at age 20, later expanding into drawing and oil painting at age 35. He has published 11 books of poetry, with his seven most recent volumes formatted as interdisciplinary art-and-poetry collections that pair 20 poems with 20 original paintings. His surrealist and landscape paintings frequently investigate the intersections of classical European mythologies and the rugged topography of the Pacific Northwest. Poole was a co-founding director of Get Lit! (a literary festival in Spokane, Washington) and the founding director of Wordstock (now the Portland Book Festival). Now dedicated entirely to his studio practice, he lives, writes, and paints in Vancouver, Washington.

Artist’s Statement:

I came to painting and drawing at the relatively late age of 35.  I began doodling on my calendar at work and found that I couldn’t stop. Soon, I was buying paper and pastels and spending more and more of my free time drawing. Pastels changed to acrylic, acrylic moved to oils.  I taught myself by trial and error, reading, observing and taking private classes from Alexander Rokoff and Tom Relth. 

It amazes me that over twenty years later, painting and drawing are still almost a daily habit for me. When I began, I always thought this was going to be a private hobby.  However, as I grew as an artist I wanted to show my work to people.  Friends began buying paintings.  People kept telling me you should exhibit in a gallery.  So several years ago, I finally got up the nerve to apply for a call to an open show and was accepted!  So now I guess I can call myself an artist.  Who knew it would get this far?

For me, the process of creating the art is the greatest joy.  I hope that this joy comes through in the art and translates to the viewer.  Hundreds have offered me encouragement along the way and I can’t thank you enough.