ARTIST STATEMENT
My work focuses on critical habitat and changing landscapes, where the combination of natural processes and human alteration meet. These prints are rooted in firsthand observation, where field research is initially gathered through drawing, photos, and note-taking. In representing these places, the role of printmaking acts as a metaphor for the mechanisms that reshape our environments. The alteration of the printing surface and its ability to record marks parallels to how a landscape is embedded with its own visible histories. In both my woodcuts and intaglio prints, there is always a process of elimination in the mark-making that I use as a defining point in making the final image where I cannot reverse my results. For me, this acts as a reminder for the potential of permanent loss, but also places value on the significance of that which remains.
My prints are meant to examine how we remember and represent places, and how the print can communicate a sense of fragility between memory and landscape.
My work focuses on critical habitat and changing landscapes, where the combination of natural processes and human alteration meet. These prints are rooted in firsthand observation, where field research is initially gathered through drawing, photos, and note-taking. In representing these places, the role of printmaking acts as a metaphor for the mechanisms that reshape our environments. The alteration of the printing surface and its ability to record marks parallels to how a landscape is embedded with its own visible histories. In both my woodcuts and intaglio prints, there is always a process of elimination in the mark-making that I use as a defining point in making the final image where I cannot reverse my results. For me, this acts as a reminder for the potential of permanent loss, but also places value on the significance of that which remains.
My prints are meant to examine how we remember and represent places, and how the print can communicate a sense of fragility between memory and landscape.
BIO
Mike Marks (b. 1984 | Morgantown, WV) holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Delaware. His prints and drawings have shown both nationally and internationally. He currently lives and works out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was a 2017/2018 Jerome Foundation Emerging Printmaker in Residence at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and was a 2019 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant awardee. Mike is currently a 2020 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Printmaking at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking.
Prior to relocating to Minnesota, he was Director of Intaglio for Maine-based printmaking collective Pickwick Independent Press from 2013-2016. Mike has taught printmaking at Haystack Mountain School of Craft (ME), Long Island University (NY), and the University of Delaware (DE). He's also conducted workshops at art-centers in New Mexico, Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, and Maine. Mike has been an artist-in-residence at the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (Eastport, ME), Stone Trigger Press (Abiquiu, NM), Crooked Tree Art Center (Petoskey, MI), and Acadia National Park (Mt. Desert Island, ME).
When he's not printing he's usually out backpacking or exploring rivers! Fly rod in hand!!!!
Instagram/Contact :
Mike Marks (b. 1984 | Morgantown, WV) holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Delaware. His prints and drawings have shown both nationally and internationally. He currently lives and works out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was a 2017/2018 Jerome Foundation Emerging Printmaker in Residence at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and was a 2019 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant awardee. Mike is currently a 2020 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Printmaking at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking.
Prior to relocating to Minnesota, he was Director of Intaglio for Maine-based printmaking collective Pickwick Independent Press from 2013-2016. Mike has taught printmaking at Haystack Mountain School of Craft (ME), Long Island University (NY), and the University of Delaware (DE). He's also conducted workshops at art-centers in New Mexico, Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, and Maine. Mike has been an artist-in-residence at the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (Eastport, ME), Stone Trigger Press (Abiquiu, NM), Crooked Tree Art Center (Petoskey, MI), and Acadia National Park (Mt. Desert Island, ME).
When he's not printing he's usually out backpacking or exploring rivers! Fly rod in hand!!!!
Instagram/Contact :