Artist’s Statement
Influenced by my everyday surroundings…nature, human nature, the man made, history, and the accidental…I attempt to create environments that propel the viewer into a realm where the diffusion of color, the marriage of subject matter and alternative media convene.
About his Work
George Marks is a contradiction. His work is simultaneously ordered and spontaneous. Carelessness and rigid geometry mingle on the canvas. Passages of drawing in the work range from sensitively rendered figuration to loose impetuous scrawls. His palette is generally warm and harmonious, but searing thin stripes of color may awaken the calm. All of his pieces are deliberately orchestrated to fit together into a continuous installation, and yet each is also an improvisation.
The truly radical thing about Marks’ work is his process. Although, he simply labels his work with the obfuscating little phrase “mixed media on canvas”, he has developed a vocabulary of materials and techniques that are unduplicated. This rich and complex combination of materials may of course be appreciated in its own right, but for Marks this is not the point. Rather, the medium is inextricably webbed to the message. Nothing is done for a strictly decorative purpose.
Each material brings forth specific tactile associations, each recalls a memory, each assembles a part of the meaning of his work. He is a collector of textures, colors, and surfaces. He collects mental images of crumbling stucco on abandoned houses, trees rushing past his car window, and electrical conduits snaking around the corners of buildings. Sights like these are remembered and drawn upon to evoke the beauty in things that others might cast aside as imperfections.
This body of work brings forth far ranging art historical associations such as Edgar Degas to Barnett Newman, Richard Diebenkorn, and Donald Judd. What sets Marks’ work apart from many other modern painters, however, are his roots to the landscape and culture of South Louisiana. His work is never void of content, no matter how abstract the few simple notations become. His work recalls the flat broad vistas of that which each of us unconsciously knows by heart. Scott Finch.
About the Artist
Marks is a resident of Louisiana and received his Fine Arts Degree from Louisiana State University.
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