MARKART5    Images | Bio

MARKART5 (Mark Tracy) was born in Port Angeles, Washington in 1962.  With his father being an Art teacher, the names of Picasso, Pollock, William De Kooning and Mondrian were bantered about almost daily providing the fundamental building blocks for his evolved Art language. 

With various educational studies over the years, his primary focus has been on self development and has used this intended approach to develop his current work.  With an extensive catalog of works created in the painting language of Abstract Expressionism and many of its fringe counterparts, it is clear that buried within him is a flood tide of deeper felt sentiments regarding the human condition that find presentation in his work using the human figure with classical conceptions.  During his many years of working with groups and programs such as Feed the Hungry, Crisis Prevention, Hospital visitation, teaching and leadership in discussion groups that deal with Aesthetics, Ontology, Religion, it was unavoidable for him to see the disparagement between the image that is presented to the world and the completely different image in each one of us that is kept hidden.  MarkArt5’s painting images, particularly in his current Structure and Power series paintings, create reference points for the observer to uncover personal psychological indicators, emotions, beliefs, and structures of the self image that assist in revealing alluring things within ourselves.  In addition, the painting surface offers the viewer a connection for greater social revelation, magnifying the aloneness of existence and inner thoughts, and yet sharing these seldom spoken sentiments about life through the silent exchange of the painted image.

Markart5 manipulates our known senses with often perceived unrelated parts, places or settings. This execution of work: the conceptions of a realist painter with techniques devoted to non-objectivity seem to be demanding attention like a freight train nearing an intersection - at first you stand back, and then… you move closer.  In his current Structure and Power series works, it is not unlikely for patrons to pause in front of a work for great lengths of time, indicating the living image.  His intention is new ground, new work, and a new painting image that brings one to a halt.  He states with vigor, “More than anything I wish to crush the gears of speed to slow us down. We need better hydraulics in thought and the courage to reset our directions.”  He knows that the only thing that can accomplish this in painting is to either paint the profound or the base. Everything else is decoration that can be discarded on a whim.

With the mandate of work over inspiration, thousands of hours pour over his painting efforts, with no stone unturned.  His studio, located in Seattle Washington is the sifting tool for the uncovering of greater things, the needed things.