Mark was born in Southern California in 1950, about five miles from the place where they made the moon rockets, when it was still a nice place to live.
His father was a paint salesman and my mother was a homemaker, bookkeeper and part time artist who also made felt paintings of people in the bathroom with their butts showing. To this day he still like pictures of some peoples' butts.
He now lives on the Central Coast of California - a little bit out of a beautiful town - in a house that he built years ago.
In my paintings I see the world as a cosmic stage for human activity. I'm in the audience like a court reporter taking notes with my sketchbook and brushes, playing the critic, here to observe and make comment.
I usually begin a painting with a beautiful natural landscape, but can't seem to leave it at that. Because of my need to make comment, I feel compelled to fill it up with depictions of absurd human activities and/or violent acts of revenge by Mother Nature. These depictions are full of symbolism, exaggeration and parody, much in the manner of political cartoons. I like to show men involved in their own tiny dramas while oblivious to greater and more powerful forces around them.
Most of my work in the past has had social, religious or political undertones and made comments in a symbolic and general way about the human predicament. It was not aimed at specific individuals or situations, but events in the world and the political direction of this country in the past few years have been alarming to me. I feel that it is a time for artists with a political bent to make stronger statements with a clearer message. I don |
