Mark Ezra Merrill
As an Artist, I look for what I cannot always see. I am interested in any available insight, as seen through an internal yet interpersonal individuality. I seek to understand intuition's influence on perception; how precepts of integrity, value, and meaning are in turn influenced by an emerging bio-political, techno-ecological landscape.
As a Painter, I want to challenge my perception. What can be observed can also be manipulated. What is un-known sometimes becomes known, just as what has already been seen is often forgotten. Uncertainty is timeless and resolute. The most puerile act of the painter is an action of seeing and remembering. My process is deeply dependent on the sublimation of this value, this expanding or contracting of uncertainty.
As an American, I hope to refine my critical awareness. Our Nation State is set on edge by the continual threat of cultural uncertainty. Our lives, night after night, day after day, are devalued by a carefully commercialized and marketed identity of image, product, and entertainment distracting us from seeing what we could see if we truly wanted to.
Tip Top Studio
Thanksgiving Day November 27, 1997. The studio in the Tip Top bakery, a prominent but dilapidated feature of old downtown White River Junction, is inherited from a somewhat obscure lineage by Mark E Merrill. The 1600 sq ft studio, formerly the Muffin Room, included a leaking ceiling and a still dripping lard pipe. The building was purchased and renovated by Matt Bucy in 2000, currently the Tip Top Media & Arts Building, it serves as a vibrant example of the ingenuity foreshadowing a renaissance of WRJ.
Early Works
The first series of work begun was less a continuation of previous work, and more a conceptual adaptation of my immediate environment. My initial concept was to paint layers of smooth glass-like translucent colour onto medium size square canvases. This idea was interrupted each night, as the train line running Montreal to NYC shook the poor building so to cause flakes of paint, dust and other falling debris to attach to my canvases. Abandoning the daily ritual of trying to remove these tiny flakes and particles with a pair of tweezers that I now kept beside my easel, I explored a more textural theme in a style which ultimately took on more metaphorical narratives.
1997 - 2000
Constructivist and allegorical works adapted and explored themes of egyptian creationism and mythology, the pagan/christian mythology of the annunciation, crucifixion, resurrection (unfortunately destroyed and un-photographed), and the greek tragedy of oedipus invert.
Works from industrial debris were constructed of wire, metal and electrical conduit, a deconstructed 1971 cadillac limousine, latex molds, wax, polyurethane, ceiling tile, chicken wire, home appliances (deconstructed refrigerator, misc. appliances, etc.), rail road artifacts, gravel, paint, lead paint, lead, unknown objects, misc. objects, tar, tar and aluminum, paper, particle board, orange peelings, sticks and stems, fluids, other fluids, clothing, rubber molds, rubber tubing, molded plastic, industrial molds, misc. plastic, plastic sheets, plastic flowers, plastic masks (clown, devil, and wolf), rolodex, time-clock, large intercom speaker box, holographic images, mylar, etc.
2000 - 2001
Renovations begin on the Tip Top building, early spring of 2000. Much of my attention is devoted to packing and discarding contents of my studio. During this period several small pen & ink, water colors, and other small drawings were initiated mostly of Egyptian themes. Work continues on the last oversized diptych, Annunciation, Crucifixion/ Resurrection.
A New Gesturalism
2002 - 2008
Work continues at the Tip Top in the new Studio 260. After false starts and failed attempts of a more minimalist approach to the constructivist style, obstinate and apprehensive, I return to a more purist idea of painting. Experiments with oil on canvas lead to a more primitive or gestural technique where the brush is abandoned in order to apply the medium in a most direct means possible - usually hands and fingers. While narratives are still explored, a gesturalist style implies a much less linear thematic approach to painting. Several series or styles of gesturalism were initiated during this six year period. Industrial enamel produced deep colors with a smooth glass like surface, drying overnight this medium became highly desirable, yet its use was overwhelming controversial due to it high toxicity basically fuming out the entire building. Eventually, I was asked to discontinue the use of industrial enamels, which I reluctantly complied. Encaustic methods were explored until 2002 -03 in both the constructionist and gestural works.
text in progress...
