ARTIST STATEMENT
My work focuses on critical habitat, changing landscapes, and how nature is represented. Using printmaking and drawing, these works are rooted in personal observation where field research is initially gathered through sketching, photos, and note-taking. I rely heavily on the role of the artist’s hand, even if it is hidden within the end result. This is a reflection of a broader interest I have about the pace of making art in relation to the pace of experiences within the land: the photograph arrests the moment, drawing works through the moment, printmaking elongates and stretches out the moment. This viewpoint runs as an undercurrent throughout my studio research and artwork.
Printmaking becomes a metaphor in my practice for the mechanisms that shape/reshape our environments. I view the alteration of the printing-surface and its ability to record marks as a parallel to how a landscape is curated and embedded with its own visible histories. A process of removal occurs frequently in my image-making and serves as a defining point in creating the final piece where I cannot reverse my results; unmaking one object to create another. This acts as a personal reminder for the potential of permanent loss, but also places value on the significance of that which remains. In this sense, my studio practice traces a lineage built not only on printmaking/art histories, but also relates to a legacy of naturalists and ecologists interacting and recording the world around them.
My work focuses on critical habitat, changing landscapes, and how nature is represented. Using printmaking and drawing, these works are rooted in personal observation where field research is initially gathered through sketching, photos, and note-taking. I rely heavily on the role of the artist’s hand, even if it is hidden within the end result. This is a reflection of a broader interest I have about the pace of making art in relation to the pace of experiences within the land: the photograph arrests the moment, drawing works through the moment, printmaking elongates and stretches out the moment. This viewpoint runs as an undercurrent throughout my studio research and artwork.
Printmaking becomes a metaphor in my practice for the mechanisms that shape/reshape our environments. I view the alteration of the printing-surface and its ability to record marks as a parallel to how a landscape is curated and embedded with its own visible histories. A process of removal occurs frequently in my image-making and serves as a defining point in creating the final piece where I cannot reverse my results; unmaking one object to create another. This acts as a personal reminder for the potential of permanent loss, but also places value on the significance of that which remains. In this sense, my studio practice traces a lineage built not only on printmaking/art histories, but also relates to a legacy of naturalists and ecologists interacting and recording the world around them.
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 2020 McKnight Fellow in Printmaking and 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.
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 2020 McKnight Fellow in Printmaking and 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.
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 :