Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / The Art of Waterfowl with Scot Storm (Ep. 711)

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The Art of Waterfowl with Scot Storm (Ep. 711) · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:04
  Katie Burke: On this episode of the Ducks Limited podcast, I talk with wildlife artist Scot Storm. We discuss how he got started and how he ended up where he is today. Stay tuned.
• 0:25
  VO: Can we do a mic check, please?
• 0:26
  Everybody, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, doctor Mike Brazier. I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'm your host, doctor Jared Hemphith. And I'm your host, Matt Harrison.
• 0:42
  Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, the only podcast about all things waterfowl. From hunting insights to science based discussions about ducks, geese, and issues affecting waterfowl and wetlands conservation in North America. The DU podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails.
• 1:09
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• 1:31
  Katie Burke: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Katie Burke. And today on the show, I have a special guest. He is two time Federal Duck Stamp winner, multiple DURs of the year, wildlife artist, Scott Storm.
• 1:46
  Welcome to the podcast, Scot.
• 1:48
  Scot Storm: Oh, hi. Thanks for having me.
• 1:49
  Katie Burke: Right. How many times have you been DU artists? It's confusing because you've been we'll get into it later, but you've been DURs of the year, but then you've been, like, conservation you've had, like, the other ones too, which I don't always understand, like eightieth anniversary. Yeah.
• 2:03
  Scot Storm: It's it's four times for the artist of the year.
• 2:07
  Katie Burke: Okay. And so was oh, I was looking at it. I was like, oh, these are confusing because some of them, like, had the yeah. I know there's, like, eightieth anniversary and then, like, a conservation.
• 2:14
  Scot Storm: Yeah. This special awards in there mixed in there too every once in a while, so it's it's not good.
• 2:21
  Katie Burke: Oh, yeah. I mean, I know you've done it at least at least it's been three re fairly recent ones. Right?
• 2:29
  Scot Storm: Yeah. I I don't remember the year, but, yeah, they're just a couple years apart here recently. Yeah.
• 2:34
  Katie Burke: So yeah. Because I was a lot of times in the museum, they will will put up, like, the DU artists of the year, like, for the merch they'll put, like, the merchandise package, and I know I've at least sung three of your since I've had the museum open, which has only been ten years. So
• 2:51
  Scot Storm: Yeah. That I was I've I've been very fortunate. I just I started submitting to DU back in 02/2004, and I was had to be talked into it because I was just just kinda getting going. And I've been fortunate enough to be picked, I think, every year for their national package except for one year, I think. So it's it's been a it's been a nice ride.
• 3:12
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I mean and that's an interesting, like like, I am not a part of that selection. I think most people would be surprised that I have nothing to do with that as the curator of the museum. You would think I'd be a part of it, but it's mostly like a volunteer group, like a committee that does that. So, it's like and that's ever changing, so that does that selection.
• 3:36
  So, I mean, you have to submit through it, but, it's through, and then you get I think some DE staff whittle it down, but most of it's done through volunteers. So
• 3:46
  Scot Storm: Yeah. I think so. I think there's a couple rounds that they they go through, I don't know how many people, but then they kinda pick the top so many. I'm not sure what that number is.
• 3:55
  Katie Burke: Think I don't know how many yeah. I don't either. I don't know how many they present to the committee, but I know here at DU, they'll let us go look at it. And for the merchandise thing, it literally fills up the entire, it's like products, like all sorts of products, including the art and the decoys, they fill up the whole, like, conference room in the front and the committee goes through and selects literally every item that's in the merchandise catalog on-site. Yeah.
• 4:28
  So it's interesting. I didn't know that's how it worked until I worked here because I grew up in DU and and I knew all about, like, that sort of stuff, but I didn't know that's how it worked until I got here and I was kinda shocked that's how how that goes. So I thought it was just like a group of folks, but it's not. It's I mean, is a group of folks, but it's not like three people who work here, it's the whole committee.
• 4:50
  Scot Storm: Right. Yeah. It should have been at one time, but I I know a lot even with the duck stamp programs, a lot has changed with that too. So it's, yeah, it's a broad scope for sure.
• 4:59
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Okay. So let's go back to the very beginning. So you grew up in Minnesota. Correct?
• 5:07
  Is that correct?
• 5:07
  Scot Storm: I did. Okay.
• 5:08
  Katie Burke: Yes. So And Go ahead.
• 5:12
  Scot Storm: Oh, I was just gonna say, I I went to school for architecture. That's what I went to college for, and I practiced architecture for about thirteen years until I made this switch to art. But I I just started maybe a year or two out. After college, my wife was at that time, my girlfriend was still going to school, so I picked up art as just kind of a hobby. And it just kind of grew from there.
• 5:39
  I don't know how deep you want to get into that, but at least the first story is is to me, it's one I remember because I Kristen, my my wife, did not know I was painting as a hobby. And I entered the Minnesota Duck stamp, which I grew up hunting, but I didn't realize I knew I needed to have a stamp, but I didn't realize it was a painting Okay. And didn't even think about it. And my roommate's girlfriend painted as a hobby. And I thought, well, that's cool.
• 6:07
  And she entered entered the Minnesota Duck Stamp contest. Like I said, I didn't know that it that was something that happened. But and I entered, and I ended up getting second place in that. And that in that contest, there are 11 federal duck stamp winners in that contest. And in Minnesota, you have to you have to be from the state in order to enter.
• 6:28
  And that was one of the first the first time that I think Bob Houtman won the Minnesota Ducks snap, and I took second, and I think I took Jim took third.
• 6:39
  Katie Burke: He beat a hot man was in first just
• 6:41
  Scot Storm: kinda was blown away by by that, and I called my wife up after because I was pretty excited, and I said, you know, I think I might make a career change. I might might go into painting. And her her reaction was, again, she didn't know it was painting, She said, what are you gonna paint? Fences? Houses?
• 6:58
  So
• 7:01
  Katie Burke: That's funny. Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, there's a lot of Minnesota wildlife artists that like, y'all are. You might have the most in that state.
• 7:10
  Scot Storm: Oh, I think there's something in the water. That's that's for sure.
• 7:12
  Katie Burke: Yeah. That's funny. You beat a Hoffman on your first competition. Not many people can say that.
• 7:19
  Scot Storm: No. There's with with three of them, it's a it's a pretty pretty hard thing to do.
• 7:26
  Katie Burke: Yeah. So you mentioned before going into architecture that you grew up hunting. So you grew up hunting in Minnesota. Did was your dad like, did he take you, or did you how did you get into the outdoors and that side of it?
• 7:40
  Scot Storm: Yeah. It was my dad that started me off with that. And we we did a little bit of everything, deer hunting and grouse hunting and duck hunting and pheasant hunting. And so it just kinda kinda fueled me from there. And I was I grew up in Northern Minnesota, so you really could step out your back door and go hunting, you know, and you had some time.
• 8:01
  It wasn't any big deal to to get somewhere or have to jump jump on a truck to go. So
• 8:06
  Katie Burke: Yeah. And I'm guessing I mean, you went into architecture, so I'm guessing you had kind of you were a little bit of an artsy kid. Like, were you drawing from a young age? I mean yeah. Like I
• 8:19
  Scot Storm: did I did a little bit. I did kinda when I was in junior high and high school, I did kinda comic book hero type things. But and I I enjoyed art, but I I didn't really dabble in it a whole lot other you know, we had just kind of required art classes, and I really enjoyed the art instructor, but he wasn't into drawing or painting. He was into more, you know, sculpture and jewelry and that kind of thing, more three d type elements. So Yeah.
• 8:48
  It was just something I kinda just picked up and started running with.
• 8:52
  Katie Burke: Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. So you didn't really did you I'm guessing you weren't though, I don't know, like, if you were in Minnesota, how much did you know about wildlife art before you entered the duck stamp for the for the census? Nothing.
• 9:10
  Yeah.
• 9:10
  Scot Storm: Other than, you know, you you people, you know, you look at outdoor news and Ducks Unlimited magazine and that kind of things, and you you would see some things, and you you noticed hunting, fishing paintings on people's walls, but I didn't really think twice about any of that. It was just, you know, decoration that happened.
• 9:27
  Katie Burke: Right. So when you went for the duck stamp, what was your motivation? Just because it sounded cool, or was it, like, that you wanted to yeah. Like, why do it?
• 9:38
  Scot Storm: You know, while I was living in the Twin Cities and, you know, growing up in a small town, you know, I didn't have the resources to, you know, to get out and hunt and fish as easy anymore. And I was I was a country boy sitting in the city, and and it was kind of a I saw it as kind of an outlet, and I just was kind of fascinated that it was actually a contest. And I'm I'm very competitive by nature. I was I was in sports growing up in in high school and college and played football and wrestled, and it was another avenue to compete, I guess, was was part of it as well.
• 10:16
  Katie Burke: Okay.
• 10:17
  Scot Storm: So and just with the early success, it just kinda it kinda fueled me that, you know, man, I can it's another avenue to kinda bring the outdoors to me
• 10:28
  Katie Burke: Yeah.
• 10:28
  Scot Storm: By creating something.
• 10:29
  Katie Burke: No. That makes sense. And, yeah, I mean, being successful at something kinda out the go, like, I've said this on here a bunch, but I like think about with because I have kids now and, like, whenever they're good at something, they tend to, like, you know, grab to it, just like when they naturally can do something well, and I that that confidence of doing it successfully quick helps a lot. Like, it really pushes you towards wanting to kind of, like, go after something and like, yeah, just work at it because you're like, oh, I I can do this. Like, it's such a vote of confidence for yourself.
• 11:05
  Scot Storm: Yeah. And it it yeah. It is. And it's it's just something that, you know, takes takes a place of well, the competitions and things that I was in, you know. I I need it's kind of a driving factor.
• 11:18
  I needed something to compete with. Yeah.
• 11:22
  Katie Burke: Okay. So were this is I don't mean this to sound bad, but so were you just lucky that first time and then like you and you had to work for a while till you won again, or did you, like, continue to win? Like because I can see, you know, like, how would that how did it go after? Yeah.
• 11:40
  Scot Storm: Well, that that first one, I I took second. I was kinda squeezed between the Altman's, but I still I still saw it as a win. It was you know, even though I took second, but I I was ahead of some of the people that I I've grown since then to admire their and they're they're heroes of mine. And so after that, it just you know, I thought it took me until I think this was back in '87 or '88, one of the two, but it took me till '91, and then I actually won my first stamp.
• 12:11
  Katie Burke: Yeah.
• 12:12
  Scot Storm: And then from there, it took until '99 to win another one. And I was constantly taking second place. Guess to you can probably guess the brothers that I Yeah. Took fucking place. So it was it was always close, but no no cigar
• 12:32
  Katie Burke: Right.
• 12:32
  Scot Storm: Until nine, and that's that's kind of then it just started clicking after that. Then I I started having more success, and I think it it's what you talked about the confidence thing. I think, you know, once once I won, it gave me and was able to replicate that. It it gave me more confidence. And I think that the original one, getting back to your question as as well, is I think there's a little bit of luck in there too, but I it it it wasn't I guess it was enough luck to to drive me back to to try to replicate that.
• 13:05
  Katie Burke: Well, I guess one of the reasons that I asked that is I was just looking at a lot of the artists. There's a lot of young artists now that we get to see for the Duck Stamp, particularly that because social media has provided, like, such a window into seeing the process right. So I wonder about that for you because I know, like, you have those years between, you know, you have '87, '91 from when you went into their next one. What were those years like at, like, kind of perfecting your craft and changing your style? Like, what were you doing during that time?
• 13:42
  Like, what were you learning during that time of maybe trying and not quite getting there?
• 13:47
  Scot Storm: That's there was there was a lot of frustration to start with because I wasn't I wasn't trained Mhmm. In this. You know, I just I just went to the store, and I really didn't have many friends in I didn't have any friends in the art art world. So I just went and bought, you know, basic primary colors and started working with that. And I was I was having so much trouble kinda replicating natural colors
• 14:13
  Katie Burke: Okay.
• 14:14
  Scot Storm: Out of the primary colors that it it just I couldn't I couldn't put on my canvas and boards what my eyes are seeing. It just I just fumbled through that. And finally, oh, there was an art several big art magazines at the time, and and they were there were advertisements for workshops, artist workshops out in Montana. And and I decided, you know, if I'm gonna if I'm gonna do this, I need I need to learn because if I felt like I was just kinda spinning my wheels, and this was in the mid mid nineties ninety five, '96, somewhere in there. And I signed up for one of these, and it was with a artist by the name of Terry Isaac, which I had purchased books of his and it which showed some of his process.
• 15:00
  But it's it's like anything. If you take for instance, you take as an example, you take a picture of something and you look at it afterwards and you think, man, it it really doesn't didn't capture what I was seeing. You know? It doesn't capture that bright sunset or that that greenish blue tint to an ocean, you know, that And kind of so I knew I had to kinda go firsthand and and kinda force myself into doing this workshop, but it was a life changing thing because it I learned that my colors were terrible. Yeah.
• 15:36
  You know, they gave you Probably. What what they were using, you know, not that they're telling you it was wrong, but it and the type of brush I was using. You know, just a little bit of everything. It just kinda tweaked things enough that gave me some excitement, and now I was starting to be able to create what I was seeing and by by just those simple changes.
• 15:57
  Katie Burke: Yeah. You're like relieving some frustration that you were yeah.
• 16:01
  Scot Storm: Yeah. Right. So so now I now I had kinda met a bunch of artists that were kind of in the same position I was in, just beginning. And so, you know, you exchange phone numbers and you you can bounce things, you know, across other people. And and so yeah, it was it really changed things.
• 16:22
  Katie Burke: Okay. So like during that time, were there any other, besides the artists you mentioned that you went to see in Montana, who you were trying to emulate or kinda kinda, you know, focus on your style towards those artists you're inspired from?
• 16:37
  Scot Storm: Yeah. Yeah. And I it was it was David Moss was one of the main ones. Mhmm. Dan Smith is another artist that was from Minnesota at the time who won the Federal Drug Stamp himself and kinda broke into more of the big game style and let's see.
• 17:00
  Jim Keelan, I would say he was
• 17:02
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Another DU guy.
• 17:04
  Scot Storm: One of the best. Yeah. There's several others, but I think those are probably the main ones. And I it wasn't wasn't like I was trying to copy their style, but I was I was copy trying to emulate some of the moods that they would set with the types of colors they used or, you know, the shadow and light and really trying to dive into just different categories like that and Yeah. Pull that out and try try to make it my own style.
• 17:36
  You know?
• 17:36
  Katie Burke: Yeah. And I think especially, like and and you can probably speak to this much better than I can, but I think especially a lot of times with wildlife artists, have found that they are self taught. A lot of that has to do, I think, there's a there's a few reasons, but it's not always thought of. They don't tend to get in school, they don't you know, art teachers tend to push people away from it. At least that's what I found when I talked to a lot of wildlife artists that did go to art school, and then but many of them, yeah, are are self taught.
• 18:12
  And when you're Yeah. I think you're right. Yeah. And
• 18:14
  Scot Storm: I was just gonna Go ahead. I'm sorry. Talking over you.
• 18:17
  Katie Burke: Yeah. It's okay. Go ahead.
• 18:19
  Scot Storm: Well, I was gonna say with architecture, I was I was required to take a couple art classes in college, and I found them very frustrating because it was just kinda the what I what I term old style where you'd you know, you're doing live sketches and and things like that, but I would I'd like and it's probably why I like architecture as well, but I I like the detail of things. Yeah. I like to be able to see the the veining in a leaf on a your you know, on a tree or the the veining that goes on in flowers or or the duck's wings, and I like the detail part of it. That's just what I enjoy. And I got when I was in these art classes, I would be drawing detail and stuff into my you know, when you have a live portrait, you know, of something, whether it was still life or a person standing there.
• 19:08
  And I had the art teacher who was actually the dean of the art department. She she not that we argued or anything, but she she told me, paraphrasing a little bit, that if you like details so much, she basically put me in a corner. It was an old building, but it had some really cool wood detail, woodwork, you know, as baseboard and trim that was there. So it it I felt like I was a dunce being put in the corner because you told me to draw that if I was so interested in it. And that kinda instantly turned me off
• 19:42
  Katie Burke: Yeah.
• 19:43
  Scot Storm: Even though I I enjoyed, you know, art. But so I took the minimum amount. And, you know, I since since we did detail, I know people just certain, let's say, scholar artists, I would maybe term it that way, don't feel that realism is an art form. Well, I think it's in some sense, it's it's a lot more of an art form than, you know, some loose painting or I'm gonna use Picasso. I'd I've never understood Picasso.
• 20:19
  You know? It doesn't mean anything to me. It looks like a a child could do it, but that's my opinion. You know? But it takes takes a lot more to make something look realistic than it does to have a couple blotches on a canvas.
• 20:36
  I mean, just leave it at that, I guess.
• 20:38
  Katie Burke: Yeah. It's a good you know, that's a good way of thinking about it. So I was I did not stick I was an art major to start and I did not stick with it. I did not like being told. I would have made it as an artist.
• 20:52
  For one, I did not take being told what to do very well. Mhmm. I joined the club. Yeah. So and then I just also just kinda noticed, like, you know, with it's like, you know, I was really good at it in high school and stuff and probably, like, the best, you know, artist in my little group in high school, and then I went to college, and I was like, oh, no.
• 21:14
  I'm not actually that good. I was like, these people are better than me. So I moved over to art history, and and I it's funny, we were talking about this on on another podcast. I don't know why it came up, but Picasso came up again and I was like, look and I like a lot of modern, like, you know, I like a lot of expressionism work for different reasons, but I'm not a huge Picasso fan. But and I was trying to explain, like, what that like, why why is it a big deal?
• 21:46
  And I was like, well, you just kinda have to go see one, and it helps, like, to be in, like, in person with these things. Like, seeing them online will never get you there. But it just isn't gonna work. Yeah. And but I like your answer to that you like the detail and I think that's important with a lot of artists, like, depending on whatever you're doing, you know, whatever it is that draws you is the point.
• 22:17
  Like, the point is not to, you know, I I think as it because a lot of times when it comes to realism, which I don't agree with because, I mean, everybody as an artist is has to market themselves and sell their work, like, otherwise, they wouldn't do it for a career. But a lot of the criticism is that they're, you know, they're they're selling out or whatever, which I think is yeah. I don't think that's true. But I think that as when you say it, like, doing it, like, you enjoy the details and that that's the part you find interesting, I think that really kind of debunks that theory in general because that's not really what you're doing. You know?
• 23:02
  Does that make Yeah.
• 23:05
  Scot Storm: It it does. And, you know, and it's it's the old saying that art is in the in the eyes of the beholder
• 23:11
  Katie Burke: Oh, a 100%.
• 23:12
  Scot Storm: Which is which is true. And I just don't understand some of the other stuff. I can appreciate some of it, but I don't understand it. It doesn't do anything for me. So, you know, I gotta do what I gotta do.
• 23:21
  And, you know, with what I I've met so many people, and one of the biggest, I would say, you know, kinda jumping around here a little bit, but the biggest compliment that I I get is, you know, for instance, in the ducks the duck world is is when I portray, you know, a hunting spot, and people will come up to me and say, you know, that that looks just like where I grew up hunting. I remind and it reminds people of stories, and that's what art art is about.
• 23:50
  Katie Burke: Yeah. It's a connection.
• 23:51
  Scot Storm: It's kind of reminding of us things. There's a connection there, exactly, that that brings you to that place, that time, and those memories. I mean, when it's all said and done, the memories are what we all we have in the end. So
• 24:05
  Katie Burke: Yeah. To
• 24:06
  Scot Storm: me, that that's what it's about.
• 24:07
  Katie Burke: No. I agree. And it's a connection, and and there is nothing more to eat your own than art. Like uh-huh. Right.
• 24:16
  Yeah. Right. It is very much, like, what you like and what evokes emotion for you. Yeah. And that can be anything, but I think especially when it comes to hunters who see those things, and I don't know if you know his stuff, but he said something really good.
• 24:35
  Cameron McIntyre, he's a carver. He does mostly decoys, but he also paints, and his paint paintings are not as well known. And he doesn't he does landscapes, he doesn't put the ducks in them. And the reason he does that is because he wants that that he wants you to have that feeling of when it's really quiet and you're in the duck hole and you get that that emotional response that you get when you're outdoors and, like, you see God's work, like, you just see, like, the work, you know, like that, I don't know, that that undescribable moment before you start shooting, you know. And Mhmm.
• 25:17
  That's something I think wildlife artists really do well. I think I think that's what a lot of people connect to no matter if it's his that has ducks, doesn't have ducks or a David Moss. I think they're connecting to that time they spend outdoors that means so much to them.
• 25:34
  Scot Storm: Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure.
• 25:36
  Katie Burke: And
• 25:36
  Scot Storm: that's And I I've done landscapes and stuff too in the past, but to be honest, a little jerklingly fashion here, but I always thought they're incomplete until I added a duck or an eagle or something.
• 25:47
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I think it just depends. I mean, like, that's his way of doing it, and I think and, you know, I wonder and I also wonder, because his main career is in carving decoys. I wonder if he's like, oh, you know, in this, I don't want to do a duck. Like yeah.
• 26:04
  I deal with ducks all day. I don't this and this, I don't want to.
• 26:08
  Scot Storm: Right. Right. I hear the best.
• 26:10
  Katie Burke: So but I always I but that emotion I think that people get from the outdoors and with wildlife art, that is something that's so specific to outdoors men and women that you see like, I think that's such an emotional like, you're talking about, like, when people see their duck hole and stuff like that. I think that's that's such a big part of it, being able to connect to those spaces.
• 26:33
  Scot Storm: Mhmm. Yeah. Right.
• 26:35
  Katie Burke: Alright. So let's take a quick break, and then we'll be right back.
• 26:52
  VO: Whiskey. After these messages.
• 27:04
  Katie Burke: I'm here with Scott, and I wanna come back cause we kind of went off in the weeds there for a little bit before the break, so I want to come back and which happens, that's that's the best part about the podcast. So I want to go back to talk about because we right before we went to break, we talked a little about, you know, your process of learning. And since we're coming up, I'm guessing are you entering the duck stamp this year? Are you or can you?
• 27:31
  Scot Storm: Yes. Yes.
• 27:32
  Katie Burke: I can
• 27:32
  Scot Storm: I can enter it?
• 27:33
  Katie Burke: Because your last you won it oh, yeah. And when did you win it last? 2019? It was
• 27:38
  Scot Storm: '19 Okay. '20 Okay. Season.
• 27:41
  Katie Burke: Yeah. So it's three years, right, that you're not allowed to. Is that correct?
• 27:45
  Scot Storm: Correct. Okay.
• 27:46
  Katie Burke: Yeah.
• 27:46
  Scot Storm: Yeah.
• 27:47
  Katie Burke: So with that coming up, I guess my question has to do kind of with your process with stamp competitions in general because I know, like, I've talked to a few people. I I've talked to Joe Hoffman, and I've talked to Adam Graham a couple times, and I know that there's, like and I'm not saying to give your secrets away, but I know there's a science to those those competitions. And what I'm really asking is how from a younger artist of winning mean, you won early, like well, 2005 is your first win. So how have you kind of
• 28:27
  Scot Storm: yeah.
• 28:28
  Katie Burke: To for the federal. Like, how have you kind of perfected or if you I don't know about perfected, but have worked to kind of train your painting to for these competitions. I know they're a big part of being a wildlife artist, so of entering them because, I mean, it's it's a big source of income as well for you. So, like, how does how have you changed your painting or, like, to kind of for those competitions? And how does that differ from your regular work?
• 28:56
  Scot Storm: I I would answer the last question first. The difference between the the duck stamp competitions or any conservation art type competition is there's so much more time that goes in because because you are competing against, as in the federal, the best wildlife artists in the country in my mind, you have you have to have the anatomy dead on. I mean, you can't come in there with an extra feather in the in the wing, or you've gotta you've gotta have you can't paint a duck in molt when it's in the middle of wintertime, or, you know, you've gotta you've gotta have everything right as far as environment, as far as anatomy.
• 29:34
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Because you got biologists on that panel.
• 29:37
  Scot Storm: Yeah. So you're right. And yeah. So I spent from from the first wind to the second wind, I would say I've I've gotten into more more field studies. I'll spend more time in the field.
• 29:48
  For instance, like the spring migration, I'll I'll spend, you know, week here, week here up in South Dakota when I call the ducks kind of a captured audience because they'll spend some time in the pond, and and you could put as as an example of canvasbacks, which is one of my favorite ducks. They're constantly kinda getting up and chasing and going around the pond and landing again, and you throw a couple decoys out there that some of the divers still do respond to decoys at that time of year. So you've gotta you'll have hours of shooting photos.
• 30:24
  Katie Burke: Okay.
• 30:26
  Scot Storm: Whereas in the fall or some, you know, other times, you might get a a fleeting shot of a of one of those flocks as as they go by. So you you get a little bit more of a captured audience. So that's something I do a lot of, and that's with anything.
• 30:42
  Katie Burke: Yeah. They're comfortable. They're not they're not worried about getting shot at at that time. So
• 30:47
  Scot Storm: Yeah. And so I do that I do that with I do a lot of white tail gear. I do, you know, everything from well, everything.
• 30:54
  Katie Burke: Yeah.
• 30:54
  Scot Storm: I've spent time up on in Alaska taking on a photo journey for brown bear, you know, on the salmon run. I used to make it called for commissions and things like that. So I I guess the difference now is I I just spend more time doing my research. And the the change from when I first won to is also in I I feel like my technique is constantly evolving. I if I ever get to a point where I I think, you know, this this is a perfect painting, I'm I might as well crip because I'll never do that again, and I've never even been close to that.
• 31:35
  I've always had something when I finished a painting that, you know, you you put it in the closet for a while and you take it back out after a couple weeks, you know, see something that, man, I wish I would have done that different. Or years down the road, you just man, I can't believe I painted that piece of junk. You know? So you're constantly evolving, at least I think you are, or you should be. You shouldn't you shouldn't ever be content with what you've created if if and then maybe that's part of the competitive nature that I have that I I wanna constantly get better.
• 32:09
  So just studying other people's art, like Adam you mentioned Adam Grimm and and Joe. I mean, those guys have come a long ways. Adam is fantastic artists. I mean, Bo, you talked about hyperrealism. He's he's got it.
• 32:24
  He's and with his he's got so much control with his colors and anatomy, and and Joe has so much you can tell it's a it's one of his paintings. He's got just a lot of I you can't even I couldn't even tell you how to pick it apart, but when I see, like, one of Jim's or or or Joe's or even Bob's, they they have a little bit different
• 32:49
  Katie Burke: Yeah. There's a little bit difference in them.
• 32:50
  Scot Storm: With the right Mhmm. Technique. Yeah. But the it's it's I look at it, and I kinda pick them apart just as kinda color tones that they use and things. Know, just something might
• 33:00
  Katie Burke: Yeah. You say that. And the thing I always notice on Joe's is when Joe does white, like, when he does a snow goo like, a swan or a snow goose, I can always it's something about the way he paints that, like, a white tone that's specific. Yeah. Yeah.
• 33:16
  There's something about it
• 33:16
  Scot Storm: that's yeah.
• 33:18
  Katie Burke: There's something about it that's specific. I don't, yeah, I don't know how to really describe, but I and it's incredible because I always tell, like, people, like, you know, like, that's, like, the hardest you know, painting white and black is one of the hardest thing. Like, those are the hardest things to do. There's no there's no white black.
• 33:35
  Scot Storm: That's right. That's right. And paint painting painting snow is you know, I people ask me, you know, if water's hard to paint or what's the hardest thing to paint? And I think it's it's snow because it's all different tones. It's not pure white.
• 33:49
  It never is pure white. It's all tones of a little bit of yellow, a little bit of pink, a little bit of blue.
• 33:55
  Katie Burke: And you can't let it overpower the white because then you're you know?
• 33:59
  Scot Storm: Right. Yeah.
• 34:01
  Katie Burke: It's super difficult. No. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah.
• 34:05
  And I was telling Adam when he I I think I interviewed him. I don't know if I interviewed him right after he won this year or I was just talking to him. He might have been in Chicago, and I said because I don't I think the speckled eyeder is a funny looking bird, and I don't think it's a very attractive bird, and I was like, you made it look good. Like, you made it you made that funny looking bird look good.
• 34:26
  Scot Storm: Yeah. Well, he he did did a fantastic job on just the lighting of it. You know?
• 34:31
  Katie Burke: It's The background is probably my favorite part. Yeah. Think. Oh, yeah. I laughed.
• 34:39
  And I was like, also, I've made fun of him. I like, oh, you got out, Justin. You made sure you won before your daughter could beat you.
• 34:45
  Scot Storm: Yeah. That's that will probably happen. You're not wrong.
• 34:50
  Katie Burke: Think she should be I think she should be entering this year. I think she's old enough. It's either this year or
• 34:55
  Scot Storm: next I don't care. Yeah. I think she's She's fantastic.
• 35:00
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Well, she had a good teacher.
• 35:03
  Scot Storm: Oh, yeah.
• 35:05
  Katie Burke: So
• 35:05
  Scot Storm: That's for sure.
• 35:06
  Katie Burke: Okay. So I guess to follow that question, and I guess I kinda wanna talk a little more because you do a lot of different stuff for your regular paintings. I mean, you do a lot of waterfall, obviously, because you enter into the DU Artist of the Year, but you do Whitetail and Turkeys and different things. So are you at I'm guessing at this point, you're doing mostly commissioned stuff. Correct?
• 35:29
  And, like, art competition?
• 35:32
  Scot Storm: Yeah, very few art competitions. I I'll always submit it to you, and I do some other conservation groups, but really the only duck stamp I'd I'd enter anymore is the federal. I used to do a lot of states around the country, but, yeah, it's about 75, 80% commission work for people, and that which is I have really had some great clients. I've been very fortunate because it's a lot of it is kinda that recreation of of a memory that they've had where I find it so fascinating to cut you know? Because I if we're doing a landscape type thing, you know, I wanna be there.
• 36:07
  So, you
• 36:07
  Katie Burke: know, they take me out of Yeah. That was my next question. So do you go Yeah. You go to these places when you do
• 36:14
  Scot Storm: I do. Yeah. Whenever I can. I've had a few that will just come up and ask me, you know, I just wanna, you know, this particular species and this kind of backdrop, and I don't wanna have anything special. You know?
• 36:26
  So I'll but I'll put together a couple options for them to kinda pick from Okay. In that case. But it it it's not as fun as actually going there and experiencing something. You know? One of one of the funnest commissions I've I've done was fortunately, it was involving a duck hunt.
• 36:45
  So, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah. But it it was down in Louisiana on on a flooded timber type deal where, you know, he was explaining, you know, growing up on this piece of property that and he'd been hunting it forever and had this great duck blind built there that's been there forever. And he just had this his best hunt he ever had, and he was describing it. This is what he wanted to recreate.
• 37:11
  And it just I was down there for about a week, and towards the end, we had one of these days. He said, you know, the sky is exactly what I remember. So I was able to capture it with photos, and and we had ducks coming in from everywhere that morning. It was and he he was like in heaven. I mean, I could see the joy of his his face because he said, this is exactly this is exactly what I remembered.
• 37:36
  So I was able to recreate exactly what what he had seen. So that that was pretty cool, you know, because I was sharing a moment with him that was from his childhood.
• 37:49
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Okay. So I that brings a question. So what does that do in terms of, like, which kinda talked about what we're talking about earlier, but, like, in terms of, like, getting to experience that and get those emotions from that space, how does that affect your painting in a lot of ways? Like, do you notice the difference between one where you've had that experience and you paint that scene versus one you just do through images?
• 38:17
  Like, do you is can you tell a difference? I mean, maybe the viewer can, but can you tell a difference when you've had that experience painting versus not?
• 38:26
  Scot Storm: Yeah. I think so. And maybe it maybe it's more of an emotional difference for me. You know, it might might not show in the final product, but it's it makes it a lot more fun, more enjoyable for me because it's it's also something that I've now experienced.
• 38:42
  Katie Burke: Yeah. So you have a connection in a different way.
• 38:45
  Scot Storm: Yeah. And and some of the but some of the commissions can be fun that way too. You know? If if I'm not if I'm able to recreate something that you know, I'll get something, you know, from my reference files that if if it's something that they they just want, they don't have anything particular that you know, as far as landscaper or poses that they want. So that also gives me the flexibility to go back in my reference and kinda picks things that I think are neat that happened to me, and I think that are good representation for this person, you know, without that experience.
• 39:21
  But I I think for those people that you know, I've done a lot of dog I'll I'll back up. I've done a lot of dog portraits when I first got I still do a few of them from time to time, but I you know, when for instance, one person I got to know over the years, and I've done a couple of paints, wanted me to paint a painting of his dog. Well, he I I kept and he it was a yellow lab. Well, it was a red faced yellow lab, I'd say. And I could he just wanted me to do a painting of this dog, but I know dogs dogs to me, especially when you're painting realism, I mean, they all it's like looking at a human.
• 40:00
  They all look different. And and I this guy just absolutely loved this dog. I really wanted to get get that whole attitude, that whole look of his dog, and I just didn't think I could pull it off just by taking some of my reference files to paint from. And and he just really drug his feet and didn't wanna send me anything other than I had a picture of his dog that was an old photograph that that was maybe a half inch high. That was the whole dog.
• 40:32
  Well, it's not enough for me to get reference from as far as what his face features are, things like that. And finally, his wife called me and said, well, he didn't wanna tell you this, but his dog passed away a couple years ago, and that's all he has. I thought, oh, man. How am I gonna do this? So I I actually did I sent him some things of what I had, and I did, on the computer with Photoshop, kinda changed, you know, took a yellow lab and kinda tried to change it to that red face so he could kinda get a feel for it.
• 41:03
  And we actually settled in on one, and and but it was it was very tough for me. It wasn't I wouldn't say that it wasn't enjoyable, but it wasn't a fun piece to do because I knew how I felt about the dog, and I just was trying to recreate something that, you know, if he's not happy with it, that just kinda blows the whole thing. You know? Being in I I pride myself on, you know, trying to make sure that people are happy with the finished product is is very important to me. And and, fortunately, it was the most time I think I'd put into a dog portrait because I just wanted to get it just right.
• 41:43
  And fortunately, he was very happy with it when it was done. So I probably a lot more than I needed to on it. But so that that's kind of the different emotion, I guess. I was on pins and needles kind of painting that whole thing. Whereas when I'm out in the field with somebody that I've shared and experienced, you know, it's it's all good good positive emotions that are going.
• 42:06
  Katie Burke: Oh, yeah. And I can I've always thought that about, like, portrait artists because I'm like, people see people like, you don't necessarily see someone the same way that they see someone. Exactly. So, like, that's such a it's such a risky one. Like, portraiture is, like, so risky.
• 42:22
  Like, you don't know if you're gonna be able to do it.
• 42:24
  Scot Storm: Yeah. And I I really try not to do that much anymore, but I do get talked into it. I've got a couple of commissions this year that I kinda was talked into to doing, but because they're they're basically from photos, and there there's no experience there. But
• 42:41
  Katie Burke: Right. Okay. So with that, where for commissions, since you go to these places, what are some of the, like, best experiences you've got to have, like, going on these commission like, for commissions and stuff?
• 42:54
  Scot Storm: Oh, one one year, these were back to back, and I I just talked about one. It was down in the Duck Blind in in Louisiana. But before I went down there, I was up on I had two commissioned paintings for King Eiders, and we flew out to Saint Paul Island, which is I might get the mileage wrong here, but I wanna say maybe 700 miles off of the the coast of Alaska. Preblov Islands, there's three islands there. And in which that island happened to be I don't know if you're familiar with the show Deadliest Catch where they're doing the King Crab.
• 43:33
  But one of one of the factories for that is on this island, and and it is in the middle of the Bering Sea, and it is rough as heck. But being out in some of these small boats riding the waves trying to trying to get King Eiders both both with a camera and and with a shotgun was it it kind of played with your nerves a
• 43:59
  Katie Burke: lot. Yeah.
• 44:01
  Scot Storm: Because everything was cold. I mean, it's the ice ice sheet is coming down. You can kinda see little chunks of ice floating here and there. You just and with these rolling waves, it just really stirs. And then from there, I flew down to the other end of the country, down Louisiana for for the hunt that I described just a little while ago.
• 44:20
  Yeah. I've
• 44:21
  Katie Burke: been so seasick. I'm I'm not.
• 44:23
  Scot Storm: I'm Oh, I I got seasick a couple times. Yeah.
• 44:28
  Katie Burke: So that was my other question. So do when you get to do these, do they let you hunt? Do you get to hunt when you go on these on these
• 44:35
  Scot Storm: Oh, that's a that's a requirement, my contract.
• 44:41
  Katie Burke: Alright. So what are some of I
• 44:42
  Scot Storm: don't I don't have it I don't have it in the contract, but, yes, I always joke, and they say that. Well, I do get to hunt, don't I? And I've never been turned down. So
• 44:53
  Katie Burke: So what are some of the best what are some of the best hunts you've got to go on for this?
• 44:57
  Scot Storm: Oh, down in south of well, that Louisiana hunt was fantastic. I was just tremendous, but I've also gone just South of Kansas City in Missouri on some of the flowages off of the Missouri River were fantastic in in the month of November and December and out in the Dakotas. Been on some duck hunts out there for some photo shoots. All all ends of the earth, I guess, at least in America. Been out in Maine several times to do some photo shoots for some paintings in California.
• 45:40
  Katie Burke: Yeah. You've set this up well, because not all wildlife artists do that. So I'm I'm happy that you, like, asked to go on these things.
• 45:50
  Scot Storm: Yeah. Well, it's you know, it's it's yeah. It's been it's just been a it's been a great experience for me. I'd I've been very fortunate in in what I do, and and it's I know that a lot of artists, friends of mine are what I'm trying to think a way to term this. They're a lot of wild artists are kinda studio artists where they they go and take photos at a zoo or, you know, preserve where they aren't really the wild animals anymore.
• 46:21
  For instance, you you look at a farm raised white tail, and they aren't the same white tail that you see in the woods. The body structure's a little bit different because they haven't had the stress. They haven't had the the flea coyotes and cougars and all that good stuff. And and they'll sit in the studio and and paint all the time and not really experience the the way things are in the wild. And I think for at least for me, it's important.
• 46:46
  And and it's I know it's not important for everybody, but I I like the fact that I try to portray what I see in the environment. Yeah. And And to kind of create it from a hunter standpoint. That's that's also important to me.
• 47:00
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I think that that is is you know, the more I've gotten into learning about wildlife artists, yeah, I think I think it's noticeable, especially to a hunter when you you can tell the difference. I was looking at I was, like, going through your Instagram and stuff because I was, like, researching you and everything. There's no you don't have a lot of information on the Internet, by the way, but I was looking at I was looking at your I guess it was one of your turkey hunting pictures and I was like, it's for I was like, it's pretty spot on. I could really tell that it was the way the guy was sitting in the tree, like, next to the tree, and I was like, yeah, that's pretty accurate.
• 47:42
  Yeah.
• 47:43
  Scot Storm: That that was my my son. My my son was modeling for me. He's he was about 16 there. And I had I had to do that painting because I experienced if you're a turkey hunter, you fall asleep against the tree. I don't care who you are.
• 47:56
  Katie Burke: There's no better happens. There's no better nap That's right. Than than, like, turkey hunting. And
• 48:03
  Scot Storm: it I I was actually on a photo shoot to do a painting, and it wasn't that one for for this guy, but he had fallen asleep in that situation. I looked I we had turkeys coming in. I looked back, and he was zoned asleep and and just a subtle snore. And I thought, man, do I wake him up with a shotgun blast when they get in here? Just let him sleep?
• 48:22
  Or which would be kinda funny. But and then it it also happened. My son did that to me three years in a row, and I literally had and we'd be sitting a couple trees apart, you know, maybe eight feet apart or six feet apart, but I'd have to kinda flip a stick or a stone to
• 48:39
  Katie Burke: Throw acorns in.
• 48:40
  Scot Storm: To wake him up when the turkeys are in the decoys. So I I that was a painting that was kinda just fun for me to do.
• 48:46
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I do that.
• 48:48
  Scot Storm: We keep here at the house.
• 48:49
  Katie Burke: Yeah. So I I hunt with my I'm a big turkey hunter, and I love to turkey hunt, and I hunt with my dad. And I'm bad about falling asleep with him because I know he's gonna wake me up. Like, he'll, like because I he'll he's gotten to where he'll either, like, you know, kick his kinda foot a little bit, the brush sleeve, or he'll just start, like, lightly calling so I wake up. And but, yeah, I know he's gonna wake me up.
• 49:15
  I'm so I don't think about it.
• 49:19
  Scot Storm: Well, I wasn't gonna do that anymore to my son. I was I was trying to him three times, but after three times, then then I'm gonna shoot him.
• 49:27
  Katie Burke: Yeah. He gets to hunt way more than me, though, because he lives, like, five minutes from our from where we turkey hunt, and I have to come on in on the weekends.
• 49:36
  Scot Storm: Oh, sure.
• 49:37
  Katie Burke: He he kills his turkeys. He I'm not worried about him.
• 49:43
  Scot Storm: Yeah. It's all good.
• 49:44
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I know. I love yeah. Those turkey like, especially, like, the best turkey naps are the ones when you go in the afternoon at, like and you're like, oh, we'll just go out at two and just see. And, like and you're waiting to see if one gobbles, like because there's not much you can do at two.
• 49:59
  You're not gonna call them up, like, at two in the afternoon until unless they gobble first. Right? So you're just kind of like sitting out there waiting to hopefully hear something shot gobble, then you're like, okay. But and you're usually pretty safe, and it's usually like, it's spring. It's getting to get warm.
• 50:17
  Yeah. It makes a great nap.
• 50:19
  Scot Storm: Oh, yes. That's for sure. That's for sure.
• 50:22
  Katie Burke: I did that one I liked. I was like, oh, that's pretty accurate. Especially, like, the way you sit against a tree too is also like a specific way. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 50:33
  Scot Storm: Well, it's
• 50:34
  Katie Burke: Before actually, I wanna go back real quick before we go get you know, we're getting closer to the end. So I just but there was a question. Hold on. Where was it? Okay.
• 50:46
  So when you went to leave architecture, and I think this would be a I think, you know, other I know there's some younger wildlife artists who sometimes listen to these and they'll probably definitely listen to your interview. So I wanna ask this question. When you were making that career change from, you know, becoming a full time artist, what was what was that decision like for you and how did you finally, like, pull the trigger, so to speak, to do that?
• 51:15
  Scot Storm: It it was it was tough. And I had thought about it for a while, and and we got to a point where my wife and I, she had she had twins, and our twins were two years old. But we made a choice that she would quit her career and raise the kids as as her career and which we have thoroughly loved and would do that all over again. But it put a little bit of added pressure that we didn't have two incomes coming in as well. But I I I kinda credit it not kind of, I do credit to Kristen because I I remember there like I said, the kids were two years old, and she came to me.
• 51:55
  She said, you know, you're you're putting as much time in to art, if not more than you are in architecture. I said she said the kids need a dad, and so you need to choose. I don't care which one you choose, but you need to choose. And I I thought, man, I it it's now or never. And she actually kinda made the suggestion.
• 52:19
  Why don't you try her? You can always go back. And, you know, we we had a little bit of money in the bank, but not much, but enough, you know, to get by for a little bit. So I jumped into it, and and and she was on board. And if she wasn't on board, I probably wouldn't be in art at this point.
• 52:38
  It was I'm not that it was a big risk, I guess, but I when I look when I describe myself or feel about myself, I don't feel like I'm a big risk taker. But it was just it felt right. I had people behind me that that were pushing it, and I have had some luck. And this was in '99 when I decided to go full time.
• 53:01
  Katie Burke: You've been at it for almost twelve years, thirteen?
• 53:06
  Scot Storm: Yeah. I would say about twelve twelve years, I think. I'm not sure exactly when I started, to be honest. I like I think I said maybe '87, '88. I think it was '87.
• 53:16
  But yeah. So I've been doing doing both for that amount of time, and it it and I wasn't doing it as solid, you know, as far as as much time painting to begin with it, but it it kept building. And it just I was I was, you know, in the art contests, the only thing that matters is winning because you don't get any money for second or third. Sometimes you don't get it get get written up for second or third. So all the glory goes to the the first place.
• 53:50
  But it was it was driving me that I wasn't there yet, and I think, you know, that fueled the fire as well as long as I had the support. And once I went full time, it wasn't all rainbows and and pots of gold. It was there's a lot of lot of mistakes made, a lot of lot of backward stepping, and and it wasn't till, you know, 2004 when I was able to win the federal. I mean, that I was at a point in 2004 at the time that the federal was being judged. I mean, I was I was a fingernail with close to quitting just because it it wasn't bringing in I wasn't able to bring in enough money to pay the bills.
• 54:38
  So we were kind of at our wit's end. And, you know, talking to a lot of the artists from the past that have won the federal, it it you know, them them terming it as a a career maker, it it certainly was. I mean, it it turned it was like a light switch. All of a sudden, I was doing radio shows and interviews and people calling me for commissions, and it was that's what made my career. I that's the whole thing that made my career.
• 55:12
  Katie Burke: Yeah. So So yeah. And I mean, that's such a hard time too. I mean, I'm, like, in the middle of that part of my life with little kids, and there's a lot of pressure, and and you got a lot going on just being a parent. Yeah.
• 55:29
  That's really interesting. Do you have any advice for someone kind of going through that part of this career? I mean, I'm sure this is a pretty common struggle in as an artist and that they go you kind of have this period in your career. Do you have any advice for this?
• 55:50
  Scot Storm: Yeah. And and things change so rapidly in the the art world. You know? For instance, the way I was doing things, the way I was able to build a career out of it isn't the way you you're gonna build it nowadays because a lot of the art contests, like the state stamps, are are hanging on by a thread if they're if they're even going on anymore because it it once I saw several things happen. Once we went to digital stamps, which I'm a little nervous about the federal because now they you don't have to have the federal the actual image.
• 56:24
  You can just get the digital license for your for your hunting license. I saw in The States it absolutely killed the duck stamp print program, which is what an artist doesn't make anything off the sale of the stamps, whether it's state or federal. That's you make it off of your print sales. Well, it absolutely killed the prints because the stamps were now digital, and they didn't they weren't high resolution things anymore. They were just, you know, this basically, I think they'd gotten better, but it was just kinda this pixelated digital art in the middle of a computer printout.
• 57:05
  Like, know the Minnesota duck stamp looked just terrific. And when it first came out, I think they've gotten better, but they already killed the program by that time because you had people that were collecting, for instance, the same number of that stamp print every year, and all of a sudden it kinda got chunky and they they quit. Well, they aren't gonna jump in because they they don't have the the whole edition anymore. So now now that people don't have that those stamp programs to kind of feature themselves. But what they do have, the the good thing is, which I'm terrible at, like you said, there isn't a whole lot on the website of of mine or of the on the not website, but social media.
• 57:53
  But I noticed there's a lot of artists that are are on there posting stuff. They're very good socially, you know, and things they're doing today on their artwork or which are very interesting or a time lapse sort of thing that shows how the creation of the painting goes. I'm I'm trying to get to that point.
• 58:11
  Katie Burke: But I think you'll be okay. I think you're well known enough that you don't need to worry about it too much.
• 58:16
  Scot Storm: Well, you gotta you gotta keep going. Like I said, I I don't have to sit still. But I but there's different different ways that young artists can do it. And, you know, the the art shows around the country aren't there anymore either. There used to be tons of really good art art shows for artists to to gather at, and it just that doesn't happen anymore.
• 58:36
  So I think social media is is kind of the place that's gotta take over. The only unfortunate part of that is you aren't actually seeing the painting. It's it's like night and day as as you will, I'm sure, know it's it's different than you know, when I met you at the
• 58:54
  Katie Burke: At DUX. Yeah.
• 58:55
  Scot Storm: The DUX. It's different looking at an original in person than it is through a picture on your on your phone or your
• 59:03
  Katie Burke: Oh, yeah.
• 59:04
  Scot Storm: Or even a printing wall.
• 59:06
  Katie Burke: Oh, yeah. It's much different. Yeah. I mean, there are still some good shows, but not many.
• 59:11
  Scot Storm: I mean There are some, but they're very, very limited. Very limited. And there's a waiting list usually to get in them.
• 59:18
  Katie Burke: Oh, really?
• 59:18
  Scot Storm: Yeah. That makes sense.
• 59:19
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Okay.
• 59:20
  Scot Storm: The less experience you have, the less likely you're gonna be in those shows.
• 59:24
  Katie Burke: Yeah. That makes sense. Yep. It's similar in my field with, like, as a curator, like, there there's just not not a lot of jobs out there, and we don't tend to leave our jobs. So and then they want you to have experience to get it's a whole thing.
• 59:41
  So but, yeah, I can see that whether it be, like yeah. Because the only ones I've ever go to are I would go to Easton every year, and I love that one.
• 59:52
  Scot Storm: That's a good sign.
• 59:53
  Katie Burke: And then I've been to Seaweed a few times, but they got rid of the auction there, so I don't go as much, but because a lot of the stuff I deal with we don't have, like, a ton of flat art space in the museum, so I don't I don't have to go as often, like, to talk to artists as much because it's just I'm not looking for as much as volume of stuff, whereas with decoys, I'm always having to go to be collectors and things like that because that's usually who has
• 1:00:21
  Scot Storm: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Alright. And Eastern's a good place for that.
• 1:00:25
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I love East. And also, it's like Maryland in November and it's just a great it's a great festival. I recommend that one to anybody who likes the outdoors. It's such a good festival.
• 1:00:37
  Scot Storm: You gotta gotta go there just for the cream of crab soup.
• 1:00:40
  Katie Burke: Yeah. No. Yeah. There's that, like, that it's like an antique store that's right there that has it. Oh, it's so good.
• 1:00:47
  Scot Storm: Yep. Yep. I know which one you're talking about.
• 1:00:49
  Katie Burke: I go there every time. It's so good. It comes out of a crock pot. It's great. Yep.
• 1:00:58
  Alright, Scott. Well, this has been great. But before we go, I wanna ask, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you'd like to talk about or mention before we go?
• 1:01:11
  Scot Storm: You know, I I can't can't really I don't really know that there is. I'm sure there once I hang up, I'll probably think of a ton of things. But
• 1:01:21
  Katie Burke: That's fine.
• 1:01:22
  Scot Storm: That's the way this old mind works.
• 1:01:25
  Katie Burke: Yeah. I know. I do that too. I'll I'll probably have the same same question. Well, thank you so much for doing this.
• 1:01:31
  This has been really fun.
• 1:01:32
  Scot Storm: Oh, absolutely. I appreciate you giving me some time, and and I enjoyed talking to you. And I mentioned down at DUX, and and glad we had this time.
• 1:01:42
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Know. When I I was actually I was talking to Jared Dacote, who's been on here before, and he's like, have you gone to talk to Scott? And I was like, he's here? He's like, like, I went on a mission to find you.
• 1:01:56
  Scot Storm: God, we he's he's great. I just I just gotten to get to know him the last couple years, and he's he's darn good artist. Yeah. And he does a lot more than that.
• 1:02:06
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Yeah. He's super nice person and does a lot for DU, and he's been he's been great. Yeah. I don't interview as many artists on here, and I need to do more.
• 1:02:16
  So I'll probably have to hit you up after this to see if you have any recommendations on who I should interview. But Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Well, thank you so much for doing this.
• 1:02:26
  I really appreciate it.
• 1:02:28
  Scot Storm: Oh, appreciate it myself. Thank you.
• 1:02:30
  Katie Burke: Alright. Well, thanks, Scott, for coming on the show. Thanks to our producers, Chris and Rachel, and thanks to you, our listener, for supporting wetlands and waterfowl conservation.
• 1:02:45
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• 1:03:05
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