Scotie Cousin
Artist—Cousin’S Critters
Photo: Laird
How do you envision your critters? What is the inspiration?
Let’s start with God first. Because He’s just kind of telling me what to do. He has really supercharged the creative gray matter between my ears. Sometimes it just flows out so effortlessly. I don’t do any specific species, mainly. I get a lot of people asking me to do a dolphin or a shark and I still love doing that, but what I really love is not knowing what I’m going to do next. And then what happens is I go, “Wow, that’s pretty cool. This one was awesome.” And I get lost in a world of imagination. It really is wonderful what you can come up with when you’re just being a kid again. I’m a 60-year-old kid that just loves playing. And fortunately, I’m making a living at it while helping as many people as I can along the way. It’s really wonderful to have that Godly inspiration while helping others because it really does affect some people when they need it the most. And sometimes inspiration is driven by the recycled materials I use. I try to use as much of the recycled material as I can and draw the critter out of that.
You said that you began placing your critters in public spaces of Atlantic Beach during the COVID pandemic simply to put some joy in peoples’ lives during a stressful time. Can you share some reactions that you’ve received?
I installed the first critter right in the middle of traffic. I stepped back, looked at it, and laughed for probably about three minutes. The early reactions I got there were priceless. The elderly people and the kids especially would just light up. It’s really great to share the excitement and childlike wonder that I can give somebody. I can’t even begin to imagine how many reactions I’ve received. The random texts from strangers that aren’t my friends on social media are the most powerful because they really have to look to find me. I got one that said, “I was having a very horrible day, getting chemo at the hospital, and then I looked up and I saw one of your critters and it just gave me what I needed to not worry so much—to see a little bit of joy and love that is unconditional and from a total stranger.” The stories that I hear are incredible. It’s an intangible wealth that I deposit on a daily basis, and it gives me such vigor to get up in the morning and do God’s work in making people smile.
How do you choose locations?
I’ve probably done close to 50 different types of outdoor installations: chalk, food coloring in snow, about a thousand clown noses in a tree that has no leaves. I look for opportunities to make people go “This doesn’t look normal; it looks out of place. How did it get there and why?” Those are the places I look for, where it would be a total surprise for somebody. We just don’t have enough surprises in life. I also get people who ask me to install art on their property or want a little something crazy outside their business, which is so humbling. There are so many different ways to view how I choose locations because every day it’s not the same. I love that, because I can keep my own self guessing, not just everybody else. And it tickles me, because I’ll put something out, forget about it, and a year later it’s still there. It makes me smile, and I hope it makes everyone else smile too.
You use unusual material for your critters. Can you tell us about it?
It is corrugated polypropylene or what they call coroplast. It’s what political and real estate signs are made of, they’re 24 x 36 usually, and they’re highly recycled because there are a lot of people who put signs up for a limited time before discarding them. So, I was really loving this idea to use actual corrugation, the channels in it, and universally all over the place. It’s really wonderful to work with because it’s cuttable, you don’t have to use a saw, and I love using the knife to carve it out. It’s a wonderful material. I have people that reach out to me, former mayors, saying, “Hey, I’ve got these.” It’s great that the politicians send these signs my way when they’re done with them.
Do you have a personal favorite artist, art medium, or artistic time period or style?
Andy Goldworthy, he’s an artist out of London. He does these large-scale installations outside with natural materials and he’s one of my favorites because he also uses the outdoors as a canvas. When I became familiar with his work, I started doing some snow and organic leaf sculptures. I did a carpet of leaves next to the L stop in Chicago when I lived there so everybody saw it. Every leaf was painting the concrete in a different style, like a pattern. It was cool. I love mid-century modern colors. I like modern art, sculptures, functional art. As far as knowing artists and even being taught, I think I always followed my natural instinct. I didn’t even know that many artists or styles. There are a lot of really great artists here in Jacksonville and it’s great to be a part of the renaissance that we’re having here.
What else do you like to do with your free time?
I love to help people in the community as much as I can. One of the coolest things was speaking at an assisted living facility. It was awesome to figure out this particular artform I’m doing with critters is so widely loved. The first thing people say when meeting me for the first time is that it makes them smile.
I also love to play music. I play at least 30 minutes of my guitar every day. It’s so wonderful to do visual art all day and then grab my guitar after dinner to play something random. Other than that, I’ve got two cats that take up a lot of my time. I think they’re worse than kids sometimes.
Do you have bigger dreams for your critters, or something entirely different?
I’d make at least 20 percent of my week doing other mediums. I would also love to get these critters in war-torn areas of the world, places where there is a lot of stuff that shouldn’t be going on. Another would be using this to spread God’s love and understanding and healing. I hope that it would change the world in that way, that’s my bigger dream for my critters. I just hope that I’m always affecting people in a positive way where, in turn, they could affect someone in a caring, loving way, where it would make a difference. That’s my dream.
What do you love about Jacksonville?
When I came to Jacksonville, I came for health reasons. I was having constant surgeries; I’m up to 36. We moved from Chicago to here for Mayo’s chronic pain clinic and they did a wonderful job with my health and what I love about Jacksonville is it saved my life—Mayo did. And not only did it make me start to thrive, but I got to know a really big group of creatives here. All around me, I see really great talent. Everybody wants to help each other. And it’s just such a great, friendly vibe. You always feel like you are just one friend away from always being taken care of. It has really been a wonderful city and has been great for me and my wife and my two cats. I’m humbled and honored that I can be spreading a little bit of Scotie love around the city.
