All of my work is autobiographical – by that I mean all my work is the result of things I’ve done, seen, heard, imagined. I am slow to react to things very often – I don’t know how to react often at the time I experience something and my feelings about it may not come out until years later when a book, music, movie, art, or an experience brings this feeling out of me by means of drawing or print.
This may be why there is a certain feeling of nostalgia in my work because I am belatedly reacting to things in my past.
Usually at the time I am doing a drawing, etc., I am not conscious of what it was that spurred the idea and at the time it is often a mentally painful experience because I only have a vague idea in my head what I’m trying to get on paper and usually I know I didn’t get down what I was trying for. Once I get the basic idea on paper I usually can’t remember clearly my original idea but evolve the work into [something] else.
Since I remember things in terms of figurative images, that is how I think in terms of my work rather than in more abstract terms. I really cant conceive of abstract images because I’ve never had any experience involving them except in the art work I’ve seen which is not the type of experience that inspires me to do art.
Some works are more autobiographical than others – some things I’ve never experienced in actual life but only in things like books, pictures, and films, [and] even music [and] certain moods – and when I react to these stimuli through art, I don’t have as thorough a personal knowledge (there is more speculation than actual experience). [Hence] these works are not as personal.
However, when I’m doing the work, I don’t think about the distinction, but I am vaguely aware of it because the more personal works are more painful to produce –
I can’t control the stimuli really so I don’t know what will be coming out of me next – I have a hard time following one idea for an extended time because I usually get stimulated by a new thing and lose my interest in the idea I had before the new one.
Editor’s note: This statement is taken from what is probably an early journal (perhaps the late 1970’s or early 1980’s). Mark’s tenacity with the subject matter of his later picture journals, superimposed figure drawings of significant people, biblical prints, "Life with Cancer" watercolors, and his final series of watercolors seem to contradict his assertion that he has a “hard time following one idea for an extended time.” For example, the last watercolor series comprises hundreds of sequentially arranged pictures that document the evolution of his inner self toward wholeness – what Carl Jung called the process of individuation. The series is extraordinarily coherent considering that Mark drew most of its images and ideas from dreams and during the moments of reverie just before falling asleep over several years of careful self-observation.
This may be why there is a certain feeling of nostalgia in my work because I am belatedly reacting to things in my past.
Usually at the time I am doing a drawing, etc., I am not conscious of what it was that spurred the idea and at the time it is often a mentally painful experience because I only have a vague idea in my head what I’m trying to get on paper and usually I know I didn’t get down what I was trying for. Once I get the basic idea on paper I usually can’t remember clearly my original idea but evolve the work into [something] else.
Since I remember things in terms of figurative images, that is how I think in terms of my work rather than in more abstract terms. I really cant conceive of abstract images because I’ve never had any experience involving them except in the art work I’ve seen which is not the type of experience that inspires me to do art.
Some works are more autobiographical than others – some things I’ve never experienced in actual life but only in things like books, pictures, and films, [and] even music [and] certain moods – and when I react to these stimuli through art, I don’t have as thorough a personal knowledge (there is more speculation than actual experience). [Hence] these works are not as personal.
However, when I’m doing the work, I don’t think about the distinction, but I am vaguely aware of it because the more personal works are more painful to produce –
I can’t control the stimuli really so I don’t know what will be coming out of me next – I have a hard time following one idea for an extended time because I usually get stimulated by a new thing and lose my interest in the idea I had before the new one.
Editor’s note: This statement is taken from what is probably an early journal (perhaps the late 1970’s or early 1980’s). Mark’s tenacity with the subject matter of his later picture journals, superimposed figure drawings of significant people, biblical prints, "Life with Cancer" watercolors, and his final series of watercolors seem to contradict his assertion that he has a “hard time following one idea for an extended time.” For example, the last watercolor series comprises hundreds of sequentially arranged pictures that document the evolution of his inner self toward wholeness – what Carl Jung called the process of individuation. The series is extraordinarily coherent considering that Mark drew most of its images and ideas from dreams and during the moments of reverie just before falling asleep over several years of careful self-observation.