Mark VandeBrake, Artist (1949-2016)
On March 3, 1949, Mark VandeBrake was born, with a twin sister, into a family of six children in Paterson, New Jersey. His father was a Protestant minister and the family moved frequently, living in South Dakota, Oregon, and Colorado before moving to Michigan in 1966. Mark graduated from Hope College with a Bachelors Degree in Art in 1971 and from the University of Tennessee with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Printmaking in 1973.
Mark describes a troubled relationship with both parents. Mark’s father, Henry, experienced a mental breakdown when Mark was 6. Henry “could no longer function in society because of his paranoid delusions.”[1] He would occasionally make brief recoveries but always relapsed into mental illness. He was eventually institutionalized in a mental health care facility. Mark’s mother, Ida, taught in a Christian elementary school and became the sole supporter of the family. Preoccupied with her many responsibilities and concerns, she seemed, according to Mark, unwilling to express affection or to show concern for his developing needs and interests at home or at school. She was “very distant emotionally – so I never got much guidance or support. I spent a lot of time alone reading and drawing and inventing games.”[2]
Much of Mark’s art documents a deep and cathartic exploration of his inner life. As a child, he felt constrained by his rigorously strict Calvinist upbringing, which proscribed outward expression of feelings and freedom of thought by enforcing a belief system that seemed to reward conformity and imitation instead of creativity and insight. In his journals, Mark describes developing a rich and creative inner life as well as his interest in art as a response to the rules and limitations imposed by family and church.
Being away from home for the first time in 1967 at Hope College opened a wellspring of artistic expression triggered by unfettered opportunities for cultural, intellectual, and spiritual exploration. Mark began his lifelong obsession with a formidable cross section of writers, thinkers, artists, religious explorers, and musicians, many of whom had dug deeply into their own inner lives. A small sampling of influential personalities included Thomas Merton, Morton Kelsey, Richard Rohr, Carl Jung, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, Peter DeVries, John Barth, James Joyce, William Faulkner, Thomas Pynchon, Bob Dylan, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Muddy Waters, Hieronymus Bosch, Walt Disney, Albrecht Dürer, and Oliver Stone. Mark consumed literally thousands of creative works, many of which he studied in depth. He responded to these literary and artistic works as well as to the challenges of his life experiences, both emotionally and intellectually, through a poignant type of artistic “autobiography.”[3] Katherine Vande Brake calls this approach “Art as Story” in her website’s introduction of Mark’s JFK prints.[4] His art expressed his responses to his internal and external experiences; he was interested in developing and conveying these real-world responses as opposed to exploring the abstract.
Hope College also introduced Mark to his life companion, Kathryn (Katie) Theurer (b. 1950), an art education major. They married and had two children, Sally and Jacob. Katie worked as an art teacher for several years, and also as a receptionist for a mental health care facility until she was laid off. Mark worked as a silkscreen printer until 1998 when he was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. The treatments prevented him from working, but his artwork continued in the form of watercolors produced lying in bed. After recovering from this cancer, Mark worked as a custodian at the same health facility as Katie. He retired in 2015.
In spite of the time and energy required by blue-collar employment, serious illness, family responsibilities, and the massive amount of reading and music he consumed, Mark ultimately produced a large body of creative work. And he felt that he had reached a sense of spiritual and artistic closure by the time of his final illness. Eighteen years after recovering from his battle with Malignant Melanoma, Mark died of Multiple Myeloma in his home surrounded by family on July 11, 2016.
In his art, Mark was often doing “inner work” as described by Robert Johnson in his book by the same name.[5] The symbols, images, and stories that erupted during dreams, and the active imagination that occurred as he was falling asleep often served as fodder for his projects. Like Hieronymus Bosch, Mark's images functioned as archetypally charged emotional triggers to characterize the heights and depths of individuals reckoning with the forces of society, culture, religion, change, etc. These include uninhibited display of the human form, which he idealized as perhaps the most extraordinarily beautiful thing in nature. Death, duplicity, greed, as well as innocence, compassion, and transcendence can all be found in his tributes to human fallibility, weirdness, and genius.
Mark carried artistic innovations across domains. His journal series of portrait drawings that juxtapose multiple and superimposed ordinary and significant people suggests James Joyce’s carefully orchestrated stream of consciousness technique applied to figure drawing.[6] We literally seem to be seeing a snapshot composite of superimposed images occurring in Mark's mind. No matter how random they may seem, the placement and attitudes of these personalities cause the viewer to consider them in relation to each other; to create some kind of narrative response or story that fits the complex of images. While Mark addressed through visual satire and invective the ubiquitous abuse of power and greed, and the lack of character and inner awareness among the leaders of society, his portraits of animals and the meek and common people were often filled with humor and compassion.[7]
Based on a journal entry from 9/8/91, Mark's artwork can sequentially be organized according to medium: 1. Etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs; 2. Paintings (oil and acrylic); 3. National print purchase (Map of United States and Muddy Waters silkscreens purchased for display at overseas US embassies); 4. Georgia print purchase (Gulp silkscreen print); 5. Etching silkscreens; 6. Block prints; 7. "Books" (watercolor and drawing journals); 8. Silkscreens. 9. From the time of his first cancer illness (1998) until his death he worked exclusively with watercolors and felt tip pens.
His work in college (the late ‘60’s through the early ‘70s) consisted of secular, pop influenced subjects (like Mickey Mouse) with bright colors, simple forms, and an uncompromising sense of humor. He also used his artistic imagination to satirize and protest social injustice, greed, and the idea that power often causes institutions (e.g. government, religious denominations) to compromise and even forget their original principles and foundational sources of inspiration. After a charismatic religious experience, he did a number of block prints depicting biblical stories as well as a large mural installed in a church. The ‘80s were more secular, with serialized picture journals about social issues as well as his inner work reconciling interpersonal and spiritual challenges. He started silkscreen printing again from 1990 until discovering a lesion in 1998 that was diagnosed as Malignant Melanoma. From 1998-2001 he completed two series of watercolor journals that documented his battle with Malignant Melanoma.[8] His final work in watercolors was an extension/continuation/merging of the cancer journal and self-exploration journals documenting the transformative results of years of inner contemplative work. These works are full of archetypal symbols including animal spirit guides, shadows, the anima, elixirs, caves, Sufi ecstatic dancers, and homunculi, to name just a few.
[1] VandeBrake, Mark. My so called experiences with the Invisible Being we call God. Written journal ca. 1998-1999.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See Artist’s Statement page on markvandebrake.com.
[4] Vande Brake, Katherine. Printmaker Mark VandeBrake. Website (not currently available) set up for class at Kings University, Bristol, TN.
[5] Johnson, Robert A. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1986.
[6] See an early example: A Common Longing. Watercolor. Image Narratives.
[7] See I wish Tarzan was here. Watercolor. Image Narratives.
[8] See A Journey with Melanoma: Series 1.
On March 3, 1949, Mark VandeBrake was born, with a twin sister, into a family of six children in Paterson, New Jersey. His father was a Protestant minister and the family moved frequently, living in South Dakota, Oregon, and Colorado before moving to Michigan in 1966. Mark graduated from Hope College with a Bachelors Degree in Art in 1971 and from the University of Tennessee with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Printmaking in 1973.
Mark describes a troubled relationship with both parents. Mark’s father, Henry, experienced a mental breakdown when Mark was 6. Henry “could no longer function in society because of his paranoid delusions.”[1] He would occasionally make brief recoveries but always relapsed into mental illness. He was eventually institutionalized in a mental health care facility. Mark’s mother, Ida, taught in a Christian elementary school and became the sole supporter of the family. Preoccupied with her many responsibilities and concerns, she seemed, according to Mark, unwilling to express affection or to show concern for his developing needs and interests at home or at school. She was “very distant emotionally – so I never got much guidance or support. I spent a lot of time alone reading and drawing and inventing games.”[2]
Much of Mark’s art documents a deep and cathartic exploration of his inner life. As a child, he felt constrained by his rigorously strict Calvinist upbringing, which proscribed outward expression of feelings and freedom of thought by enforcing a belief system that seemed to reward conformity and imitation instead of creativity and insight. In his journals, Mark describes developing a rich and creative inner life as well as his interest in art as a response to the rules and limitations imposed by family and church.
Being away from home for the first time in 1967 at Hope College opened a wellspring of artistic expression triggered by unfettered opportunities for cultural, intellectual, and spiritual exploration. Mark began his lifelong obsession with a formidable cross section of writers, thinkers, artists, religious explorers, and musicians, many of whom had dug deeply into their own inner lives. A small sampling of influential personalities included Thomas Merton, Morton Kelsey, Richard Rohr, Carl Jung, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, Peter DeVries, John Barth, James Joyce, William Faulkner, Thomas Pynchon, Bob Dylan, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Muddy Waters, Hieronymus Bosch, Walt Disney, Albrecht Dürer, and Oliver Stone. Mark consumed literally thousands of creative works, many of which he studied in depth. He responded to these literary and artistic works as well as to the challenges of his life experiences, both emotionally and intellectually, through a poignant type of artistic “autobiography.”[3] Katherine Vande Brake calls this approach “Art as Story” in her website’s introduction of Mark’s JFK prints.[4] His art expressed his responses to his internal and external experiences; he was interested in developing and conveying these real-world responses as opposed to exploring the abstract.
Hope College also introduced Mark to his life companion, Kathryn (Katie) Theurer (b. 1950), an art education major. They married and had two children, Sally and Jacob. Katie worked as an art teacher for several years, and also as a receptionist for a mental health care facility until she was laid off. Mark worked as a silkscreen printer until 1998 when he was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. The treatments prevented him from working, but his artwork continued in the form of watercolors produced lying in bed. After recovering from this cancer, Mark worked as a custodian at the same health facility as Katie. He retired in 2015.
In spite of the time and energy required by blue-collar employment, serious illness, family responsibilities, and the massive amount of reading and music he consumed, Mark ultimately produced a large body of creative work. And he felt that he had reached a sense of spiritual and artistic closure by the time of his final illness. Eighteen years after recovering from his battle with Malignant Melanoma, Mark died of Multiple Myeloma in his home surrounded by family on July 11, 2016.
In his art, Mark was often doing “inner work” as described by Robert Johnson in his book by the same name.[5] The symbols, images, and stories that erupted during dreams, and the active imagination that occurred as he was falling asleep often served as fodder for his projects. Like Hieronymus Bosch, Mark's images functioned as archetypally charged emotional triggers to characterize the heights and depths of individuals reckoning with the forces of society, culture, religion, change, etc. These include uninhibited display of the human form, which he idealized as perhaps the most extraordinarily beautiful thing in nature. Death, duplicity, greed, as well as innocence, compassion, and transcendence can all be found in his tributes to human fallibility, weirdness, and genius.
Mark carried artistic innovations across domains. His journal series of portrait drawings that juxtapose multiple and superimposed ordinary and significant people suggests James Joyce’s carefully orchestrated stream of consciousness technique applied to figure drawing.[6] We literally seem to be seeing a snapshot composite of superimposed images occurring in Mark's mind. No matter how random they may seem, the placement and attitudes of these personalities cause the viewer to consider them in relation to each other; to create some kind of narrative response or story that fits the complex of images. While Mark addressed through visual satire and invective the ubiquitous abuse of power and greed, and the lack of character and inner awareness among the leaders of society, his portraits of animals and the meek and common people were often filled with humor and compassion.[7]
Based on a journal entry from 9/8/91, Mark's artwork can sequentially be organized according to medium: 1. Etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs; 2. Paintings (oil and acrylic); 3. National print purchase (Map of United States and Muddy Waters silkscreens purchased for display at overseas US embassies); 4. Georgia print purchase (Gulp silkscreen print); 5. Etching silkscreens; 6. Block prints; 7. "Books" (watercolor and drawing journals); 8. Silkscreens. 9. From the time of his first cancer illness (1998) until his death he worked exclusively with watercolors and felt tip pens.
His work in college (the late ‘60’s through the early ‘70s) consisted of secular, pop influenced subjects (like Mickey Mouse) with bright colors, simple forms, and an uncompromising sense of humor. He also used his artistic imagination to satirize and protest social injustice, greed, and the idea that power often causes institutions (e.g. government, religious denominations) to compromise and even forget their original principles and foundational sources of inspiration. After a charismatic religious experience, he did a number of block prints depicting biblical stories as well as a large mural installed in a church. The ‘80s were more secular, with serialized picture journals about social issues as well as his inner work reconciling interpersonal and spiritual challenges. He started silkscreen printing again from 1990 until discovering a lesion in 1998 that was diagnosed as Malignant Melanoma. From 1998-2001 he completed two series of watercolor journals that documented his battle with Malignant Melanoma.[8] His final work in watercolors was an extension/continuation/merging of the cancer journal and self-exploration journals documenting the transformative results of years of inner contemplative work. These works are full of archetypal symbols including animal spirit guides, shadows, the anima, elixirs, caves, Sufi ecstatic dancers, and homunculi, to name just a few.
[1] VandeBrake, Mark. My so called experiences with the Invisible Being we call God. Written journal ca. 1998-1999.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See Artist’s Statement page on markvandebrake.com.
[4] Vande Brake, Katherine. Printmaker Mark VandeBrake. Website (not currently available) set up for class at Kings University, Bristol, TN.
[5] Johnson, Robert A. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1986.
[6] See an early example: A Common Longing. Watercolor. Image Narratives.
[7] See I wish Tarzan was here. Watercolor. Image Narratives.
[8] See A Journey with Melanoma: Series 1.