Scott Scheidly is an Orlando-based artist originally from Ohio. His controversial series The Pinks continues to elicit strong reactions from the art world. In anticipation of his upcoming show Glamor Shots at Spoke NYC, Raul Barquet caught up with Schiedly about his work, tiki mugs, evil people and death threats.

Raul Barquet: Tell me about your childhood, does creativity run in the family? Have you always made art?
Scott Scheidly: I have always been creative. I tell people all the time that I truly believe that playing with Lego’s is what kicked off my creative side. Unfortunately, I’m the only artist in my family.

Do you have a formal education in art?
By accident, I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I took an hour and a half trip with my friend so he could enroll and as we were sitting there I was asked if I was there to enroll as well. Thought to myself for a few seconds then replied “sure why not”.

You have a long history creating Tiki art, how did you become a part of that movement? What does it mean to you?
I love the tiki culture. I live it and have been collecting tiki mugs for about 20 years and designing them for Tiki Farm for around 15. I started doing tiki paintings around the same time which is what brought me into the lowbrow/pop surrealism genre.

Your ongoing series The Pinks is quite controversial and garners a mix of reactions from viewers. Are there any figures, historical or fictional that you shy away from painting?
For the most part, everyone is fair game. The more badass or evil someone is the better to make fun of them. I will say I have shied away from painting Bin Laden. The radicals scare the shit out of me. I have been threatened a lot by Russians followers of Putin, told to kill myself by Trekkies for my Spock piece and one lady lost her mind over my Pope John Paul piece at a gallery show.

The people you paint range from celebrity, to political, to fictional. How do you select the subjects of your portraits?
The paintings are about the perception of color so by painting evil people in hues of pinks and purples it makes you step outside the norm and look at the subjects in a different manner.

The subjects of your paintings make very interesting sartorial choices, tell me about the importance of clothing and accessories in this work. Are you influenced by drag culture?
After the color, the clothing and accessories are just as important. I’m poking fun at the subjects and feminizing them but the paintings are not about gay culture at all. A lot of people think that but that proves the power of color and how it can change perception. I do however put gay pride pins on Putin because he is so anti-gay. I’m not influenced by drag culture but I do put George W. Bush in drag all the time because I didn’t like him and it cracks me up.

Many of your paintings have featured corporate logos and other recognizable imagery such as the iconic Louis Vuitton pattern, for example. What role does symbolism play in your work?
It’s just another offshoot of the paintings. It’s like a tertiary of a story.

Your upcoming exhibition Glamor Shots opens at Spoke NYC on October 6th. For this exhibition, you’ve certainly embraced the title. What does the name mean to you, and what can people expect from this body of work
Hands on collars baby, hands on collars.