Artist Highlight: Mark Russell
Meet artist and arts educator Mark Russell, who has been visiting with students from Jose de Diego Middle School just across the street from Bakehouse for years. Last summer, Mark was selected to participate in the Summer Open program and had dedicated space and time to focus on his practice. Using a blend of alcohol markers, pen, and ink to create portraits inspired by human life and experiences, Mark intimately captures the culture of his time.
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Can you tell us about your artistic practice?
I believe in learning from my experiences, and learning from those I cross paths with on this life journey. My work is influenced by the human experience, some of it my own and some inspired by those around me. I seek to create an emotional connection to life as a complicated, yet beautiful and progressive experience. Often, I make work with the goal of freezing a moment in time. Inspired by illustrator Norman Rockwell and the multimedia artist Jean Michelle Basquiat, I seek to find a balance between illustration and what is traditionally known as “fine art.”
Currently, I create my work using alcohol markers. I work in this medium because it allows me to layer and blend colors in a unique way, in a way that’s reflective of life as I see it. The many marks, like our lives, come together to tell a beautiful story.
Tell us about a personal artistic project or body of work that you are currently excited about.
The current body of artwork that I'm creating is entitled Re-Presenting the Black Man. It's a series of pieces reimagining what masculinity looks like in relation to Black men. I'm excited about this work because I feel that it’s a fresh way of showing the perspective of how Black men want to be seen in society.
Tell us about how you have developed as an artist since you began working at Bakehouse.
The Bakehouse has truly been a blessing to my art career. Originally, I came and visited as an art educator with my middle schoolers. I was always intrigued by developing my professional art career. I applied for the Summer Open, got the opportunity to participate, and I have been going ever since. That opportunity gave me the space to create and explore my artistic language, and it marked the beginning of the work I'm currently producing. With what I have gained and developed from the Bakehouse, and the opportunities I’ve gained access to after my participation in the Summer Open Program, things are only going up from here!