William Scott in conversation with Sophia Cosmadopoulos

—

Sophia Cosmadopoulos: Would you like to introduce yourself?

William Scott: Yeah, I like to make paintings made of Inner Limits, of Wholesome Encounters. To bring people's lives back, who lost their lives, to be reborn.

Sophia: Will you explain Inner Limits and Wholesome Encounters?

William: They are SFO people, the Skyline Friendly Organization. It’s the name of the Skyline people… who come from the skyline. They are space people. They are encounters. With wholesome faces, the wholesome people. Americans and black Americans and white Americans and Chinese Americans. Wholesome people who take evil's place, to replace the evil into wholesome people. You got to replace the aliens to wholesome people, into citizen people. To make it into a real world of the peaceful world and to have peace on Earth. 

Sophia: How are your spaceships related to the SFO people?

William: It’s the SFO people. The space plan to bring people’s lives back. It was about new humans, it is about Wholesome Encounters, the wholesome people - like new humans. The new creatures landing down. Come out of the spaceship like the new creatures, like the future creatures, the future of Wholesome People are creatures. They have to bring people's lives back, to raise people from the dead. Because Inner Limits rise people from the dead. They come back alive as a new baby, as a different baby. 

Sophia: Where were you born?

William: San Francisco. I grew up in San Francisco a long time ago. I lived in Hunters Point in the 60s and 70s. Then I moved to San Leandro. 

Sophia: Would you tell me about your self portraits?

William: I have paintings of the old life, of the burns of old life. In the paintings I am going to be reborn, into a new life. There was the old life and then God's plan to be reborn. New life, next life. There is another life. I will have a Jheri curl in my new life, and will have no burns, no scars. 

Sophia: You often paint yourself in another life, can you explain that life?

William: That life? I’d like to be Billy the Kid as a basketball player. Then I want to be reborn as a baby. Be reborn as a baby to be born as a basketball player. I will be in another life. I will be Billy the Kid with the Afro. To be wearing a big Afro like a kid, to be in the Lakers basketball. I will be a basketball player back in 1977 in another life. 

Sophia: What else happens in that world?

William: The Wholesome Encounters bring people's lives back, who lost their lives. Lost to gun violence, of hit and run, patients of hit and run by a car. Wholesome Encounters will bring people's lives back, to bring people's lives back who lost their lives. 

Sophia: Who are some of those people that lost their lives?

William: Like the loved ones, we’re talking about the loved ones.

Sophia: Who are some of the famous people that you like to draw and paint?

William: I like to draw Kim Fields and Halle Berry and Vivica A Fox. I like to paint Cindy Herron, En Vogue members. And Terry Ellis, Nelson Mandela and Maya Angelou, because they passed away. I paint them to bring them to another life. Bring them to a new 1970s, the new one. In the 70s, cool Afros. Michael Jackson was dead. Michael died in 2009 in June, he died in June of 2009. And Prince. I like to paint Prince because Prince passed away in 2016. And Oprah, she is a queen woman. Oprah Winfrey. She is the lord of Oprah. 

Sophia: What interests you about those people?

William: Because they're famous Hollywood stars. I like the actors in the good movies, wholesome movies. Because they are famous movie stars, because they are wholesome movie stars. They are wholesome people, they are very SFO. SFO is the name of the Skyline Friendly Organization, the name of the Skyline people. Because peace will be on earth. They’ve gotta stop, too much violence. Too much killings. Because we need Skyline people, we need that... that’s very important. The nice people and the positive people. Gospel people, the good people. 

Sophia: You often paint musicians, what’s your favorite type of music?

William: I like the oldies and The Commodores. I like to listen to pleasant funk music. 

Sophia: How do you decide what to paint?

William: To paint something peacefully. Paint something peacefully. 

Sophia: What year did you start going to Creative Growth?

William: I started in 1992. I started doing some arts. I was doing Diana Ross. I haven’t done Diana Ross in a while. I like it here. Because I do art here five days a week. I catch the Bart train.

Sophia: Tell me more about your masks?

William: I like making them. Because I'm a Star Wars fan sometimes. I like Darth Vader. I like to make a Stormtrooper. I like to wear them on Halloween. 

Sophia: Besides musicians and actors, who else do you include in your paintings?

William: My mom and me, and my stepfather and Jesus. I paint myself, as Billy the Kid in 1974. William Scott born again in another life. Nineteen seventy four.

Sophia: What are your goals for your artwork?

William: My goals, make peaceful on earth. Make some more skyline people. So they can celebrate the peaceful town, celebrate the peace. A peaceful town. I love that peaceful. The Skyline Friendly Organization will rise up the dead people who have lost their lives of the loved ones, to turn them back alive as a different baby, as a new baby, who lost their lives. To bring people back alive who lost their lives. 

–

Founded in May of 2019, Summertime is a nonprofit 501c3 Art Studio and Gallery located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Summertime connects neurodiverse artists with the people and world around them, providing a platform to tell their stories, show their work and make money.

Founded in 1974, Creative Growth was the first studio and gallery for artists with developmental disabilities. Artwork by many Creative Growth artists is exhibited worldwide and is held in numerous public collections.

All photographs courtesy Creative Growth. Banner image is a detail of William Scott, Untitled (WS 133), 2013