Mark moved to the southwest from Ohio, where he came to love pottery, clay, and Victorian architecture (all or which are easy to find there!). He studied art, architecture, and education at the College of Wooster, the Ohio State University, and the University of New Mexico.
In 1990 Mark moved to the Navajo Nation, near Canyon de Chelly to work as an art teacher. While living there he developed the clay, underglazing and design techniques that permeate much of his current work.
"I like to work in both pottery and tiles. This love of clay has been with me since middle school along with a love for pen and ink and other fine lines and brush work. These two interests synthesized in the early 90’s while teaching on the Navajo Nation. At that time I started to do design work on clay inspired in part by design work of Hopi, Zuni, and Mata Ortiz potters. however, I do not try to emulate this work- I find a lot of Native American pottery design reflects the symmetry inherent in their traditional cultures. I prefer to stick to controlled but yet free form designs that mirror my own ideology.
In the past I have mostly chosen landscapes and architectural portraits for subject matter because these things catch my eye. I depict these scenes on tile partially because of the permanent nature of tile - it will be around a lot longer than photos, digital images, paintings and other images… some cultures of the past we only know about from their tile work.
Recently, I have been branching out into other subject matter for my paintings as well as revisiting the cartoon like "doodles" that I used to fill up sketchbooks with- now painting them on small tiles.
Much of the design work comes directly from patterns found in nature.
In 2007 I started depicting musical instruments in my tile paintings. This has expanded into full tile murals depicting musical instruments, sometimes in whimsical settings, flying over canyons or foraging in forests"
A note about clay...
"For some of my clay work, I use red micaceous earthenware. I usually buy clay from a supplier in Taos , however this type of clay does occur naturally in this part of the world. Micaceous clay has been used for centuries by native potters. The mica content in the clay gives it temper, making it uniquely workable in a number of ways, the most notable being that you can actually patch or add to already fired ware with wet clay and refire!
I fashion the pottery or tiles with a slab roller or a kick wheel. Then the painting is done on dry greenware. The work is bisque fired, then a clear glaze is applied and the pieces are fired a second time. The clear glaze protects the design work and makes the pieces more usable for dinnerware, or with tile, for use in wet locations such as kitchen splashboards, bathrooms, etc.... This website depicts many examples of ways in which custom tile can be used... Enjoy!"
-tile featured in Western Interiors Magazine, summer 2007