Exhibit: "Community" by Mark Echtner In-Person
Mark Echtner is a Professor of Drawing and Painting at Sinclair College in Dayton Ohio. Echtner received his B.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and his M.F.A. from Miami University. Echtner’s work has been exhibited nationally in juried, group and solo exhibitions. His work hangs in numerous private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.
“Community” -- Artist's Statement:
For me, this series of work represents a shift from an anatomical rendering of the figure and a move toward more abstraction of the human form and the spaces they occupy.
The process for these paintings begins with an under-painting that is either an old painting turned upside down or, if one is not available beginning with random shapes and colors and then working the imagery over that. As the painting evolves, I embrace the oddity of the original gesture rather than correcting the proportion and refining the form. The random shapes from the underpainting influence the design in ways I can’t plan and must respond to intuitively as I go. Ultimately these shapes and movements are used to create the abstracted order of the final image.
Initially this series was influenced by looking at the early work of De Kooning and his use of line and color in the 1940’s. German Expressionism for its bold darkness and Fauvism for its colorful exuberance have also played a role. As the series evolves the previous works have begun to inspire the next.
Originally planned as studies in figurative abstraction, with solitary figures broken down into line and shape, it quickly became clear that the paintings were taking on quiet narratives of our daily social interactions bringing content through an underlying theme of inclusive communities.
