Mari Marks– Artist Statement
About an interaction, an exploration with mark making
With the properties of beeswax and with color
About order and disorder, composing and decomposing
In the Spectrum Studies I evenly paint 12 layers—pigmented beeswax alternating with metallic or interference pigmented beeswax—a quarter turn every two layers creating a grid-like ordering. I then evenly scrape the surface of these accumulated layers until the overlapping brushstrokes are exposed, revealing subtle patterns created in the process of layering. The resultant images, like slices of body scans or infrared images suggest celestial or microscopic worlds—glimpses of unknown text partially revealed.
We order our lives through the building of structures and memories, seeing what frays or falls apart, seeing what remains. I make paintings as an observation of this process. I set the conditions without predicting the results, yet the choice of when to cease the scraping and revealing of the next slice, the next image, is mine. New life emerges.
“in the natural processes that create Marks' primary materials and form the core of her work…Her media and creative process become metaphors for her sense of personal affinity with the solidity yet ever shifting disposition of nature's materials and cycles.” (Terri Cohn, Mari Marks, A Reflection)
Berkeley, California
November 2010
Resume
Education
1975 MA, Art Therapy, George Washington University, Washington, DC
1954 BFA, Painting with Highest Honors, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign, IL
Solo:
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2008 Dialogues in Light, a Collaboration, Robert Allen Fine Art, Sausalito, CA
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2008 Mari Marks, Variations: Marks in Time, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
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2007 Mari Marks, Notes on a Season, Ispace, the Gallery of the Fine Arts Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, IL
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2007 Mari Marks, Terra Series, Art-Scape Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Walnut Creek, CA
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2006 Reflections in Silence, Wiegand Gallery, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA
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2005 Exhibition, Recent Works, Fiori and Lamper, San Francisco, CA
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2003 Earth Reflections, Giorgi Gallery, Berkeley, CA
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2001 4 artists, Flatbed Galleries, Austin, TX
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2000 Of Time, Nature, and the Space Between, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
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1999 Layers, Texture & Time, Matrix Gallery, Sacramento, CA
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1999 Intervals, the Interactive Space, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA
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1996 Wired, The Art Source, Indianapolis, IN
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1995 Chronicles of Apprehension, Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA
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1993 Piecework, the Fabric of Memory, Ariel Gallery at Tula, Atlanta, GA
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1989 Sculpture, Paintings, and Drawings, The Academy of Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Group:
- 2010 Luminous Layers, Exploring Contemporary Encaustics, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, Portland, CA
- 2010 Surface/tension:h20, Gallery 111, Sausalito, CA
- 2010 Fifth Annual Encaustic Invitational, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, Arizona
- 2010 International Encaustics Artists: Exploring the Triptych, Lux Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE
- 2009 Richmond Memorial Civic Center Fine Art Collection, Richmond Civic Center, Richmond, CA
- 2009 Working in Wax, a National Juried Exhibition, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
- 2009 Furthermore, The 8th Biennial Exhibition, A.I.R. GALLERY, Brooklyn, NY
- 2009 Metamorphosis, Haydon Art Center, in collaboration with IEA, Lincoln, NB
- 2008 The Diptych Project, Eleanor Bliss Center for the Arts, Steamboat Springs, CO
- 2008 Two of a Kind: the Diptych Project, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
- 2008 The Diptych Project: A Collaboration in Wax, Brian Marki Fine Art, Portland, OR
- 2008 The Diptych Project, Whitney Art Works, Portland, MA
- 2007 Hot Stuff, Montserrat College of Art, First Encaustic Conference, Beverly, MA
- 2007 Off the Grid, New Directions in Wax, Lauren Taylor Fine Art, Carmel, CA
- 2006 Impulse, National Encaustic Show, Portland Art Center, Sparkplug Art, Portland, OR
- 2006 New Visions, ProArts, Oakland, CA
- 2006 Installation: Spectrum Studies, Art-Scape Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Walnut Creek, CA
- 2005 Gallery Artists, Art-Scape Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Walnut Creek, California
- 2004 Group Show, Abstract Works, Robert Allen Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
- 2004 New Visions, Introductions, ’04, ProArts, Oakland, CA
- 2003 The Whole Ball of Wax, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
- 2003 The Art of Saving Oaks, Filoli Gardens, Woodside, CA
- 2003 Alameda County Public Art Collection, Highland Hospital, Oakland, CA
- 2002 The Art of Saving Oaks, Bay Model Gallery, Sausalito, CA
- 2002 New Visions: Introductions ’02, ProArts Gallery, Oakland, CA
- 2001 WEAD eco-art = eco-activism ,JFK University Arts & Consciousness Gallery, Berkeley, CA
- 2001 Purchase Exhibition, Alameda County Public Art Collection, Oakland, CA
- 2001 10th Anniversary, Europ' Art, Geneva, Switzerland
- 2000 Woman House, Opening Closed Doors, Flatbed Galleries, Austin, TX
- 2000 The Power of Feminist Art, Opening Closed Doors, Gallery Lombardy, Austin TX
- 2000 Members Only/2000: A Sculpture Exhibition, The Atrium, WCA, San Francisco, CA
- 2000 Art in 2000, A. Jain Marunouchi Gallery, New York, NY
- 1999 Encaustic Works 99, The Gallery at R & F, Kingston, New York, NY
- 1999 Igniting the Edge, Forging new geographies, categories and identities, Artcore Brewery Annex, In conjunction with Women’s Caucus for Art 1999 National Conference, Los Angeles, CA
- 1998 Juried Annual, PRO ARTS, Oakland, CA
- 1998 4th Annual Juried Exhibition, Contract Design Center, Pacific Rim Sculpture Group, San Francisco, CA
- 1998 The Winter Show: Installation, Contract Design Center, Pacific Rim Sculpture Group, San Francisco, CA
- 1997 3rd Annual Juried Exhibition, Contract Design Center, Pacific Rim Sculpture Group, San Francisco, CA
- 1997 The Artist in Each of Us, the work of art therapists and their clients, Colonnade Art Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
- 1996 Repetition/Patterns/Textures, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
- 1996 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Galeria Tonantzin, San Juan Bautista, CA
- 1996 California Small Works, California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, CA
- 1996 North American Sculpture Exhibition, 1996, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
- 1996 Homages, Center for the Visual Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
- 1996 New Garments for Old Stories: Reinterpreting our Lives, Prieto Gallery, Mills College, in conjunction with the Women’s Caucus for Art 1996 Regional Conference, Oakland, CA
- 1994 69th Annual Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
- 1994 Art Meets Art Therapy, Wiegand Gallery, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA
- 1994 Art as a Healing Force: Fixing the Earth, Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA
- 1993 68th Annual Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
- 1992 Created at Summer Arts, Humboldt County Cultural Center, Humboldt, CA
- 1992 Twentieth Anniversary Celebration, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
- 1992 Telling Stories: Artists’ Books and Journals, Prieto Gallery, Mills College, Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Oakland, CA
- 1991 15th & 16th Annual San Francisco Open Studios, SoMar Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 1991 Women Artists ’91, Matrix Gallery, Sacramento, CA
- 1991 Mother Earth, Bridge Gallery, the Sierra Club, San Francisco, CA
- 1991 Responses to War, Berkeley Store Gallery, Berkeley, CA
- 1991 Small Works, Lucy Berman Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
- 1990 Bridges: Artists’ Responses to Disaster, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
- 1989 6th Annual Exhibition, Watercolor, Drawing, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
- 1989 The Art of Art Therapists, Wiegand Gallery, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA
- 1956-76 Maryland Federation of Arts, St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, Easton Fine Arts Museum, Easton, MD; Spectrum Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Magnificent Mile Exhibition, Chicago, IL; Corcoran Sales Gallery, Washington, D.C.;
Baltimore Museum Sales Galleries, Baltimore, MD
Publications
- 2010 “Encaustic Art, The Complete Guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax, Lissa Rankin, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, pp.41, 43, 111
- 2010 “Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility,” Daniella Woolf, Waxy Buildup Press, pp 74-77
- 2010 “Encaustics with a Textile Sensibility,” DVD featuring Daniella Woolf
- 2010 “Joyous Colors,” Tucson Weekly , Margaret Regan, March 25
- 2009 “Metamorphosis: Contemporary Statements in Encaustic,” Haydon Art Center and International Encaustic Artists, Blurb.com, Susan Joan Shenk, and Margaret Berry, Cover
- 2008 “Previews: Dialogues in Light,” ARTWEEK, Debra Koppman, September
- 2008 “Mari Marks: Process with Natural Matter,” THE BERKELEY DAILY PLANET, Peter Selz, July
- 2008 “The Diptych Project: A Collaboration in Wax, New England Wax and International Encaustic Artists,” Nancy Natale, compiler, Blurb.com, Cover.
- 2007 “The Good Body,”, Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, KY, Anne Becker, Cover.
- 2006 “Portrait of the Artist as Poet,” Magnolia Street Publishers, Chicago, IL, Carol Thayer Cox, and Peggy Osna Heller, Edit.
- 2002 “Nature Style: Leaves, Twigs & Stones”, Lark Books
- 2001 “Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax,” Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, NY., Joanne Mattera
- 2000 “Recent Works by Mari Marks Fleming @ Dolby Chadwick Gallery,” NY ARTS, Francis Mill, , Vol. 5, No. 11
- 2000 NEXT MAGAZINE, Spring
- 1996 THE GUILD, Designer's Edition
- 1995 THE GUILD, Designer's Edition
- 1993 “Art Therapy, Journal of the American Art Therapy Association,” vol. 10, no. 4
- 1991 “Matrix Women's Show,” THE SACRAMENTO BEE, Victoria Dalkey, October
- 1990 “Frozen Moments,” ARTWEEK, Mark Van Proyen, April
- 1990 “Building Post-Quake ‘Bridges’,” THE TRIBUNE, Harriet Swift, April
- 1989 “Bridges, Artists’ Response to Disaster,” Berkeley Arts Center catalog, Terri Cohn
Awards
- 2010 Juror’s Choice, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, Portland, CA
- 2008 Purchase, Civic Center Public Art Interior Art Acquisitions Project, Richmond Public Art Collection, Richmond, CA catalog
- 2004 Purchase, California Department of Health Services, California Public Art Collection, Richmond, CA
- 2003 Purchase, Highland Hospital, Alameda County Public Art Collection, Oakland, CA
- 1996 Judith Banks Memorial Award, Repetition/Patterns/Textures, Sebastapol, CA
- 1996 Honorable Mention Award, Creative Visions, Peninsula Art Association., San Mateo, CA
- 1991 High Merit Award, Women Artists ‘91, Sacramento, Ca
- 1989 Honorable Mention Award, Member Show, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
Professional Experience
- 2010 Presenter, “Psychology of Artists who Work with Wax,” IEA Advance, Panel with Terri Cohn and Jim Melchert, San Francisco, CA
- 2010 Chief Business Officer, International Encaustic Artists
- 2009 Presenter, “Encaustic and Sedimentary Materials,” IEA Retreat, Carmel, CA
- 2009 Secretary, International Encaustic Artists
- 2006 Presenter, “Encaustic and Sedimentary Materials,” First Encaustic Conference, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
- 1998 Residency, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA
- 1998 Curator, “Wilbert L. Griffith, Paintings of a Self-Taught Artist” The Berkeley Store Gallery, Berkeley, CA
- 1997 Panel Member, “Exhibiting your art work, Connecting with the art world: expanding beyond the mental health world,” American Art Therapy Conference, Milwaukee, WI
- 1995 Co-presenter with Jennifer Colby, M.A., “Art as Healing: Practitioner, Process and Audience—a Dialogue,” American Art Therapy Conference, San Diego, CA
- 1994 Panel Chair, “Art Meets Art Therapy”, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA
- 1990 Panel Member, “Earthquake Response,” 1st Annual Women’s Caucus for Art Regional Conference, San Francisco, CA
- 1990 Panel Member, “Bridges: Artists’ Responses to Disaster,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
- 1985-99 Lecturer and/or Adjunct Professor, Art Therapy and Painting as Meditation, College of Notre Dame de Namur, Belmont, CA, California State University of California, Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, Creation Spirituality University, Oakland, CA
- 1977-85 Lecturer and Adjunct Professor, Art Therapy, George Washington University, Washington, D.C
- 1979-84 Consultant to the Department of Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, Washington, D.C.
- 1980 Artist in Residence, Children's Hospital, Washington, D.C., Featured in training film funded by National Endowment for the Arts
Collections
- City of Richmond, Civic Center Public Art, Richmond, CA
- State of California, Health and Sciences Building, Richmond, CA
- Highland Hospital, Oakland, CA
- Hall of Records, Oakland, CA
- Mercury Interactive, Sunnyvale, A
- Alzo Pharmaceuticals, Mountain View, CA
- Hewlitt Packard Corporation, CA
- Mal Warwick and Associates, Berkeley, CA
- Ana Clement Hotel, Takametsu City, Japan
- Hilton Hotel, Sappora, Japan
- Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
- Halle Berry, Los Angeles, CA
Representation
- Robert Allen Fine Art, Sausalito, CA
- Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
Website
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