Hello Artsy Folk,
I have several thoughts rolling through my mind. I walked my dog, Delilah, through a cemetery by my house this morning. I saw an area of smooth brown dirt in the green grass. Obviously, the dirt was about coffin size. There at the foot of the dirt area was a tomb plaque, the kind that sits flush with the ground instead of standing upright. The plaque was out of the ground and had the woman's name and birth date. They had not yet put the date of death on the plaque. Just another reminder that we are only here for a short time. In light of this, I could throw my hands up in the air and figure art isn't worth making - after all, I can't take it with me and, fifty years after I'm dead, no one will even remember me. I should spend my time loving people instead of spending my time alone in my studio or on my computer.
A little despair sets in for a bit, but then my dog wants some food, or to play, or to eat. Eventually, I find myself wanting to paint or draw or write..., or something. And I think art is a way of loving. It is a way of loving others by communicating what is in my heart and brain. Hopefully, someone finds beauty in it like I do and we can begin a dialogue. Art is also a way to love myself. I have an inherent need to express these things that come into my heart and my head. To not would actually be hurtful to myself. Of course, you don't have to listen/read/view what I make... but I do have to make.
This week I talk with Ellie Kingsbury photographer, whose work deals with aging and fragility and inner beauty versus outer beauty. And it has a lot to do with food - so I LOVE it!
Enjoy!
Mark
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Industrial Meal of Happiness - Oil Painting
Industrial Meal of Happiness
Oil Paint on Canvas
48" x 48"
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Good Artists and Good People
Hello Artistists,
I sometimes wonder about our impact on people. What does it mean to be a good artist and a nice person? It seems that in history there were artists who were intense and difficult, but because of their genius, people would admire them and give them some slack. There is also this strange idea that artists are aloof, living in their own world. If they turn you off or seem rude, it's acceptable, because they are a man/woman-child who needs to be unsullied by the outside world. But what happens if you are a good artist and a good person? Do people even care about the artist's temperament when purchasing or admiring their work? Obviously, community artists are in a different boat, because they are creating an experience. If they make the experience unpleasant, they won't be making many community projects.
Most artists I know are concerned with what people think about them. I don't mean this in a bad way. Most artists want to leave a legacy of being helpful, being good to others. They value community and genuinely hope to engage with people in a positive manner. That said, what I like about these Artist's Brain Podcast interviews is that I am meeting genuinely good people who are concerned about this world. It is very affirming.
This week I have a conversation with Chris Faust, one of the good guys. We talk about his photography, transitions, working with youth and, of course, we talk some gear.
Enjoy!
Mark
I sometimes wonder about our impact on people. What does it mean to be a good artist and a nice person? It seems that in history there were artists who were intense and difficult, but because of their genius, people would admire them and give them some slack. There is also this strange idea that artists are aloof, living in their own world. If they turn you off or seem rude, it's acceptable, because they are a man/woman-child who needs to be unsullied by the outside world. But what happens if you are a good artist and a good person? Do people even care about the artist's temperament when purchasing or admiring their work? Obviously, community artists are in a different boat, because they are creating an experience. If they make the experience unpleasant, they won't be making many community projects.
Most artists I know are concerned with what people think about them. I don't mean this in a bad way. Most artists want to leave a legacy of being helpful, being good to others. They value community and genuinely hope to engage with people in a positive manner. That said, what I like about these Artist's Brain Podcast interviews is that I am meeting genuinely good people who are concerned about this world. It is very affirming.
This week I have a conversation with Chris Faust, one of the good guys. We talk about his photography, transitions, working with youth and, of course, we talk some gear.
Enjoy!
Mark
Thursday, June 2, 2016
It Takes a Community
Dear Artistas,
I have been thinking about community. Yes, I sit alone in my studio creating these odd paintings about food. You also sit alone in your studio making that crazy art about gas stations, death, birds and whatever else you think is important to life. But no artist who ever made a living from their own work, or became considered a good artist by the surrounding community, ever got anywhere on their own. It does take a community of people to help you get to a point of recognition, a place of artistic maturity, a parapet of accomplishment. Without interacting with others we simply become idealists lost in our own little world.
Really, do I have to get on Facebook, and Twitter and Instagram, and...? No, but you do have to interact with people and the more diverse that group of people is, the better off you will be. When I say diverse I mean getting feedback on your work from as many different kinds of people involved with the art world as possible. Of course, ask the artists close to you for their honest opinion about your art. Ask gallery owners, ask art critiques, ask artists who work in a completely different medium, ask artists from a different culture than your own, ask people who buy art, ask people to exhibit their work with you and write proposals together, ask artists to ..., I think you get the idea. The more meaningful interaction you have with others, the more it will help your art.
Just make sure the interaction is meaningful. No, you don't have to get on social media and share your whole life. But you could get on there and share the work you are making. When you go to an art opening, you can ask people about their work and share a little about your own. In the business world its called networking. In the art world its called building your community. Whatever you do, you should realize that it takes a lot of people besides just the artist to get somewhere.
Do you know who your community is?
On the podcast this week I talk with Rogue Citizen. Rogue Citizen is a small collective of artists with backgrounds in printmaking, design, graffiti, illustration and ruckus-making, founded 2009 in Minneapolis. All five members work on the same artwork at the same time or work on individual projects under the Rogue Citizen banner. I sat down with three members of Rogue Citizen and talked about communal art creation, non-political political art, the role of technology, and the future of the world.
Enjoy!
Mark
I have been thinking about community. Yes, I sit alone in my studio creating these odd paintings about food. You also sit alone in your studio making that crazy art about gas stations, death, birds and whatever else you think is important to life. But no artist who ever made a living from their own work, or became considered a good artist by the surrounding community, ever got anywhere on their own. It does take a community of people to help you get to a point of recognition, a place of artistic maturity, a parapet of accomplishment. Without interacting with others we simply become idealists lost in our own little world.
Really, do I have to get on Facebook, and Twitter and Instagram, and...? No, but you do have to interact with people and the more diverse that group of people is, the better off you will be. When I say diverse I mean getting feedback on your work from as many different kinds of people involved with the art world as possible. Of course, ask the artists close to you for their honest opinion about your art. Ask gallery owners, ask art critiques, ask artists who work in a completely different medium, ask artists from a different culture than your own, ask people who buy art, ask people to exhibit their work with you and write proposals together, ask artists to ..., I think you get the idea. The more meaningful interaction you have with others, the more it will help your art.
Just make sure the interaction is meaningful. No, you don't have to get on social media and share your whole life. But you could get on there and share the work you are making. When you go to an art opening, you can ask people about their work and share a little about your own. In the business world its called networking. In the art world its called building your community. Whatever you do, you should realize that it takes a lot of people besides just the artist to get somewhere.
Do you know who your community is?
On the podcast this week I talk with Rogue Citizen. Rogue Citizen is a small collective of artists with backgrounds in printmaking, design, graffiti, illustration and ruckus-making, founded 2009 in Minneapolis. All five members work on the same artwork at the same time or work on individual projects under the Rogue Citizen banner. I sat down with three members of Rogue Citizen and talked about communal art creation, non-political political art, the role of technology, and the future of the world.
Enjoy!
Mark
Friday, May 27, 2016
Stil Life with the Fruits of the Revolution
Still Life with the Fruits of the Revolution
Oil paint on canvas
18" x 24"
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Playing in Public
One of the odd things about being an artist is that we play in public. As I'm writing this, I am playing with Cezanne in my studio. No, I didn't go to France, dig up his body and bring it back to my studio. Although, that could be a grant worthy idea. I am playing with his still lifes: his sense of space and color and application of paint. But I am adding a contemporary sensibility of food to the setting. It is all rather fun and has been enlightening as to what CZ (he let's me call him that) was doing way back then one hundred and fifty years ago.
One of these paintings was recently shared online. It will hopefully be shown publicly in the next year or so. I get to play with Zanny (he let's me call him that) and then I get to share it with all of you. Now that can be loads of fun - like adding a gun to one of his compositions. But it also can be scary, like making a painting about fishsticks. Really, I played with fishsticks and got burned. Sometimes I will be playing with my paints and I find that I have accidentally wandered away from everyone else into the dark woods. While there, I see a plate of fishsticks or something else amazing, but who's going to believe me? I try to explain the wonder that I have seen, but they can't quite see the beauty or the humor of it all. Oh well, onto the next piece of play. Hopefully, it will entice you to play with it, too.
If you're playing and you're a public artist, well then, your mistakes are there for everyone to see. I talked about this with Amanda Lovelee recently while she took time to meet with me over her lunch break. We talk about play, thinking about art on a city-wide scale and about national and international appreciation of a great City Artist program in our home town, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Enjoy!
Mark
One of these paintings was recently shared online. It will hopefully be shown publicly in the next year or so. I get to play with Zanny (he let's me call him that) and then I get to share it with all of you. Now that can be loads of fun - like adding a gun to one of his compositions. But it also can be scary, like making a painting about fishsticks. Really, I played with fishsticks and got burned. Sometimes I will be playing with my paints and I find that I have accidentally wandered away from everyone else into the dark woods. While there, I see a plate of fishsticks or something else amazing, but who's going to believe me? I try to explain the wonder that I have seen, but they can't quite see the beauty or the humor of it all. Oh well, onto the next piece of play. Hopefully, it will entice you to play with it, too.
If you're playing and you're a public artist, well then, your mistakes are there for everyone to see. I talked about this with Amanda Lovelee recently while she took time to meet with me over her lunch break. We talk about play, thinking about art on a city-wide scale and about national and international appreciation of a great City Artist program in our home town, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Enjoy!
Mark
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Releasing the Joy
In my years, many celebrities and musicians have died but none have had such an emotional impact on me as the death of Prince. I don't have a Prince story. Although I have lived most of my life in the Twin Cities, I never had the pleasure to run into him or see him perform. But like any Minnesotan growing up in the 70's and 80's, I reveled in Prince's music. I danced at Minneapolis clubs to Let's Go Crazy, I snuggled with my Honey to Strolling and felt deeply to songs like Still Will Stand All Time.
Everyone has their celebrities and musicians that they love, that they identify with. John Lennon's death was similar, but it was sudden and senseless. At the time, it did feel like, as Doctor Who would say, a fixed point in time and space that cannot be changed or avoided. In a moment, everyone knew that we now would have to trudge along without a brother who defined our struggle for peace and love. Lennon did this by kicking at the dark and pushing the contradictions of the powerful back into their faces.
The Saturday after Prince's death, I was driving away from my house when Purple Rain came on the radio. Feelings welled up inside my chest and I had to pull over to the side of the street to cry. What is it about Prince that has this effect on me? Yes, I identify with him. Prince was a fellow Minneapolitan who never left town to make it big. It gave every creative person here the sense that it can be done in Minnesota. We don't have to move to the coasts to thrive.
As the days continue passing and Prince's death gets further removed, feelings still well up in me when I think about him. It, again, feels like a fixed point in time and space that cannot be changed or avoided. In a moment, we have all lost a brother. Someone who defined our struggle for peace and love, but not by kicking at the dark and not by showing up the powerful. Feelings well up in me because Prince defined our struggle by reveling in joy. He was the one dancing as if no one was watching, while knowing that millions were. He sang, not as if he was a lone performer, but as if he was part of a magnificent choir that included everyone who came before him, who sang with him and will, now, sing his songs in the future. He was the one who was loving as if he had never been hurt and living life every day as if it were his last - that is what his music tells me. And to hear his music now, knowing that his beautiful heart is no longer beating, I can't help but cry at our loss. Just as he raised us all up, a little closer to the light of his God, we now know that a darkness is upon us. But now, we not only know how to kick at the dark, but we also know how to stave it off by reveling in communal joy. Thank you Prince. Let the dancing begin.
This week, I sat down with Erin Sayer in her large studio space in North Minneapolis to talk about making murals, surviving as an artist and about keeping moving.
Enjoy!
Mark
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