As we enter the new millennium, humans face more than ever the need for harmony: with ourselves, each other, and the planet we live on. Each day, technology provides us with wonderful opportunities and greater risks. As our knowledge increases, so does the possibility of abuse. Ideas about religion, culture and nation have made us tribal and separate. In my work, I attempt to reconcile the rift that has developed between ourselves and our world. Elements symbolic of our industrialization, technology, beliefs and culture are used in conjunction with images or elements from nature and the universe beyond. Sometimes the works are a vision of a future place and time. Some comment on what is now. Others encompass gesture and expression, the feeling that there is a living presence in the work. More universal themes—such as spirals, water, night—remind us where we are as we travel through life on a planet in a galaxy that is one of many. The issues facing us are serious, but much of my work is playful. A sharp and blade-like shape may also represent a dolphin flipping backwards. Teeth and claws are set away, benignly, or they are harmless cutouts. Color is used in the same way: Darker hues predominate but are interrupted by bright splashes. As when we laugh at death, serious messages are sometimes best taken in a light-hearted way. There are elements that are non-representational, shapes and forms intended to generate idiosyncratic feeling and gesture, to introduce another factor into the equation. Together, they are intended to convey a message as positive as it is poignant, a message that, I hope, adds to the experience of being alive. Mark Washburn 2003 Additional statements: Apollo | Galactica | Porpoise Song Home | Exhibition Photos | New Works | Works & Installations 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
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