HELLO MARK AND THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SPEAK WITH US ABOUT YOUR ART PRACTICE AND THE NEW PIECE YOU HAVE MADE FOR YOUR RECENT COLLABORATION WITH 4BYSIX. 

TO START, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE INITIAL INSPIRATION BEHIND THE BEGINNING OF YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE, WERE THERE ANY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES THAT SHAPED THE WAY YOU APPROACHED IMAGE-MAKING AND STORYTELLING?

My artistic practice started when I was a kid: I would draw dinosaurs in kindergarten and figured I was pretty good at it. I would mostly copy images in pencil, but I started to explore and find my own voice when I attended OCAD University and met other artists with vastly different approaches. I remember meeting this one guy with a very loose and abstract sketchbook and I was blown away by the dichotomy of his work and my clean pencil sketches. Over the pandemic I threw every material I had available into experiments until I whittled down my style into something that sits comfortably in the middle between the representational and abstracted. 

COULD YOU ELABORATE ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BLUR THE LINE BETWEEN 'HIGH' AND 'LOW' SUBJECT MATTER, AND WHY THAT SPACE IS IMPORTANT TO RENDER WITHIN A VISUAL SCOPE IN YOUR PRACTICE?

High subject matter to the average person is something like Neo-classical art or art under the bastardized umbrella of “Renaissance.” Low stereotypically encapsulates ephemeral media in the illustration spectrum such as pulp magazines or comic art. For a time I was interested in exploring the overlap between these art forms. A lot of the composition, drama, bravado, and storytelling are indistinguishable because they deal with human nature as a whole; there are no such things as high-brow or low-brow emotions. I feel like this is important to me because it provides more merit to illustrators. Nowadays I have shifted to depicting more contemporary scenes but still relish in the high and low by drawing from art history references and everyday experience. 

AS COMPLEMENTARY COLOUR PALETTES PLAY SUCH A DISTINCTIVE ROLE IN YOUR WORK, HOW DO YOU APPROACH COLOUR WHEN STARTING A NEW PIECE, AND WHAT ROLE DOES IT PLAY IN SHAPING THE SCENE YOU ARE CREATING?

I have protanopia colour blindness which makes it challenging to identify colours that are analogous and similar in value. I lay my paints out in a complementary palette, like on a colour wheel where blue faces its opposite, orange, and violet faces yellow etc. This makes it easier for me to mix colours because complementary colours grey each other out and I can control shadows and intensity as long as I can identify what the dominant colour is. This approach has led me to use the same dominant colours and colour schemes in my work as it is easy for me to understand and makes my work more recognizable. 

CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU APPROACH COMPOSITION IN YOUR WORK, IS IT CAREFULLY THOUGHT OUT FROM THE START OR IS IT AN EVOLVING PROCESS AS THE PIECE DEVELOPS? 

I always sketch out my ideas on a separate piece of paper. I tend to build compositions like a draftsperson and make sure I have a strong blueprint before I start painting. Of course I still leave room for spontaneity but I’ll have a strong foundation to work with before I paint. I do not care much for accurate perspective as I flatten the space to allow more play and give my work a graphic look. I never do colour studies because I hate wasting paint and I am decent at intuiting what I want to do with colour.

YOU RECENTLY MADE A NEW PIECE ON 4BYSIX’S UNCONVENTIONAL CANVAS MADE FROM REPURPOSED LORRY TARPAULIN. CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU FOUND THE EXPERIENCE IF THE MATERIAL SPARKED ANY INSPIRATION? 

I found the material quite interesting and not as challenging as I imagined. It took longer for my acrylic paint to dry but this was easily solved with a blow dryer. The acrylic bonds surprisingly well as I did not need to use any coats of gesso — I wanted to preserve as much of the tarpaulin as possible as opposed to hiding what the material is. I wanted to frame my figure between the lines of the tarp. The slow adhesion of the paint also led to some cool mark-making in the boots, as if I was painting on glass. 

GIVEN THAT YOUR OVERALL PRACTICE IS INSPIRED BY LITERATURE, MUSIC, ART HISTORY, AND THE ABSURD, CAN YOU TELL US OF ANY SPECIFIC REFERENCES WHICH INFLUENCED THE DIRECTION AND OUTCOME OF THE WORK YOU HAVE MADE ON THE TARPAULIN?

My primary art historic influence for this piece is Tamara Łempicka with her geometric construction of figures and heavy handed darks used to form clothing folds. Music is ingrained in the piece as it is ultimately about the cessation of dancing: a figure who danced to the point of mutilation. In my mind I think of Leonard Cohen’s Thanks for the Dance. 

FOLLOWING THE NATURE OF 4BYSIX’S WORK AND AMBITION TO ENCOURAGE INTEGRATION OF REPURPOSED MATERIALS WITHIN THE ARTS, IS THE CONDITION OF THE ENVIRONMENT SOMETHING YOU ACTIVELY CONSIDER IN YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE? THIS CAN BE THROUGH YOUR MATERIALS, SUBJECT MATTER, OR THE WAY YOU PRODUCE WORK.

I am incredibly frugal and I hate waste, I try to conserve as much paint as possible and paint over old works that just take up space. I admire artists that can repurpose materials, and I think this is a great initiative. 

FINALLY, CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU ARE AND HOW LIFE IN THE STUDIO HAS BEEN TREATING YOU? WHAT'S NEXT FOR YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND ARE THERE ANY NEW DIRECTIONS OR IDEAS YOU'RE EXCITED TO EXPLORE?

I currently paint at home, I hate having to commute if I want to paint. It’s so lovely to be able to wake up and start my day with art. I am currently catching up on client work but I am excited to make new works that are more personal to me and use my home of Toronto as the backdrop.