I’m sorry to say this, but streaming has won, at least for my listening habits. Oh man, I haven’t bought an album in a really long time. I’m dating myself here, but it was Bon Jovi‘s Slippery When Wet. Throughout the process of corresponding for this feature, we discovered that he and I had even attended the same David Bowie concert in Massachusetts back in 1995. After all, he’s had an ongoing project he’s been doing himself called Soundtrack My Art via his Instagram stories, pairing specific songs that inspired specific paintings. Scott’s work has always had a bit of pop culture sprinkled in, with frequent nods to music and film, so it’s no surprise that he was one of the first to reply to my request for him to take part in this project. In some ways, it’s a haunting depiction of what things could look like to future visitors, A cautionary tale, of sorts, since we never know what the future may hold. Stumbling on a cracked-beyond-repair Hoover Dam, the Statue of Liberty behind a graffiti-strewn wall, and both the Wall Street Bull and the Lincoln Memorial surrounded by water, among many others. Strangely enough, the show, titled This is America after the Childish Gambino song, depicted the astronaut roaming the empty landscapes of the US. His most recent solo show at Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles had its opening pushed back and had to run as a web-only viewing due to the lockdowns being instituted. Scott has even admitted himself that it’s taken on a new meaning for him as well, after the pandemic hit the US when he was roughly ¾ of the way done with the paintings that would become his next show. These days, with major cities looking nearly empty because of various stages of lockdown, this type of imagery hits even closer to home than it ever has. His paintings, which all feature some variation of the same, unnamed astronaut depict the astronaut constantly stumbling onto abandoned locations and landmarks, which, until now, had seemed like a far-off dystopian future. Scott Listfield’s paintings have recently taken on a new meaning for many people who follow his work.