Mari Marks– Artist Statement

“what emerged before my eyes seemed to change and grow like life itself”

In 2001 I began an investigation, a ‘what if,’ using graphite on encaustic surfaces. I discovered the most delicate application of heat applied to line or finely distributed film brought about a flowing followed by in-gathering that could not be planned or imagined, yet clearly related to deep structures of organic flow and formation.

In my paintings, I create a consistent pattern or system of ordering within a grid-like structure. which is always in the process of changing or breaking down. This deformation implies a span of time, a progression, an ordering of experience.

I began this triptych a year after the death of my eldest daughter, continuing my exploration of touch and sediments initiated during the time of her illness and following her death. Feeling the need for gentleness, for healing, I repeated brush strokes of powdered graphite in solution, forming rows of rhythmically patterned touches on soft greens. On the third panel I placed similar rows of repeated brush strokes in graphite-pigmented beeswax. These paintings were then delicately heated with a heat lamp. In creating and observing these paintings I seemed to see the gentle touch of fingers: I thought of the Wailing Wall—of prayer implicit in touch, I saw text—an unreadable story, I saw the unending rows of grave stones in Arlington cemetery.

In this way we order our lives, building structures and memories, seeing what frays or falls apart, seeing what remains. We do not tell the cocoon to form nor the butterfly to emerge. I am an observer of my process. I set the conditions, can influence the results—results still not predictable, still following their own rules. Change within, change over time; a beginning: the application of light and heat, a new life emerges. I value the materiality, the process, and the laws underlying the formation of the natural world and the power of beauty, elegance, and tenderness to evoke and to resonate with our deepest human values. In reducing my work to the elements of color, heat, and sedimentary deposit I honor the materiality, the process, the natural laws underlying the formation of our world, our life and our world’s beauty and sacredness.

Resume

Education

Exhibitions

Publications

• 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

• 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

• 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