BIO • STATEMENT
An early watercolor study of the artist at age four (1955)
By his uncle Franklin Jespersen
(An artist & art professor at Queens College, NYC during the 1950's)
Mark Gould painting On-Site
BIOGRAPHY
Mark Gould's creative journey began in rural Iowa.
An isolated, austere childhood produced an imaginative respect for the most common objects of his early, day-to-day life. Sticks became rifles, bottle-caps soldiers, card-board boxes castles. Later, his professional "Museum & Trade Show Exhibition" experience of handling & displaying one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable artifacts and expensive, tech-heavy goods reinforced that imagination with a strong “sacredness of the object” mindset.
During early youth, his uncle Franklin "Frank" Jespersen, a practicing artist and university professor in New York City during the 1950's heyday of Abstract Expressionism and early Pop Art, vacationed summers with Gould's family. His presence and spontaneous, on-site works in watercolor provided an early window into the world of art and ultimately gave his family a permission to support Gould's fine art education.
He had no formal art instruction until freshman year in college. Overwhelmed by large university classes and an abysmal, unsatisfying, academic performance, he planned to drop out at the end of the school year. At the last minute -during second semester registration- in a "what-do-I-have-to-lose" moment", he enrolled in a basic "Design 101" art class.
This new discipline intrigued him on his first day:
"I immediately felt this was something I probably could do well. I seemed to comprehend quite basic challenges of making visual art. Assignments made sense; I felt satisfaction in their completion.
I had been failing and suddenly here was success. There was new confidence in what I was doing. In retrospect that was a very vulnerable moment in my life. I believe I needed that confident feeling as much as any benefits gained from an art education.
I remember becoming more fixated with each weekly assignment. My professor noticed this and suggested - quite seriously - that I consider switching my declared major. It was a done deal. At that moment life changed. This wonderful - often heart-breaking - journey of making visual art took over. I've been addicted and chasing it down for more than fifty years."
Gould worked construction jobs to pay his way through college eventually earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Iowa (Major: Photography As Fine Art; Minors: Drawing & Painting).
After graduation he started a small, design-build, construction company. Realizing that world was never his future, he moved to Denver and began working at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Concurrently he enrolled in undergraduate and graduate art classes at: University of Denver, University of Colorado-Denver, Rocky Mountain College Of Art And Design, Denver Art Students League and later Colorado State University and University of New Mexico.
His peregrination through studio art & art history academia combined with substantial designer/artisan/craftsman experience in home-building, furniture & cabinet making, trade show & museum exhibit production - has produced an extremely idiosyncratic art studio process.
After years struggling to gain a foothold in the gallery scene, Gould eventually secured representation in six art galleries throughout Colorado. This was followed by a move to Taos, New Mexico, a late-in-life marriage to his wife, Mary Domito, and solid gallery representation in Santa Fe NM, and Sedona AZ.
Constraints of COVID-19 provided time and opportunity to experiment. His artisanal skills unexpectedly melded with more traditional fine art practices, e.g., his training in "Venetian School" oil painting. His current unorthodox painting process and 3D studio compositions eventually produced a fine art exhibition: "PROPHETS OF OUR DNA".
This exhibition, a massive array of small figure paintings paired in diptych format alongside his current "CONSTRUCT" artworks (mixed media, wall-hung, bas-relief assemblages), coalesced around themes of "WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN NOT". This effort continues to evolve each time he steps into his studio.
STATEMENT
YOUTH
inhabit imagined worlds
invent my personal vision
UNIVERSITY
discover inner creativity
explore all possibilities
ADULT
accept that I do not know
seek personal serenity
TODAY
remain the eternal student
learn from every painting
RÉSUMÉ
BEFORE WE PROCEED . . .
I thank my wife Mary
for all her support
over our years together
and
for all her patience
with this often-temperamental
artist/beast.
• UNDERGRADUATE ART COURSES
Drawing; Design; Graphic Design
• SCHOLARSHIP
Major: Photography as Fine Art
Minors: Painting; Drawing
Rocky Mountain College of Art
COLLECTIONS
• OHIO
Sterling Collection
• NEVADA
Renown Regional Medical Center
PRINT EDITIONS
"MARK GOULD MONOTYPES":
Editions I, II, III:
Havu Fine Art Publishing, Inc.
EXHIBITIONS (Juried)
• ARIZONA
Unknown Nature Of Being
Tubac Tubac Center For The Arts
San Bernardino Institute of Fine Arts
Poudre Poudre Valley Art League
[catalogs]
Poudre Valley Art League
Art in the Rocky Mountain Time Zone
Salina Salina Art Center
[catalog]
Western New Mexico University Figurative
"Best Of Show" 29th & 30th
1st Annual
New Mexico Ranch Museum
"2nd Grand Prize"
• TEXAS
Graham-Horst Houston
Irving Art Center
EXHIBITIONS (Invitational)
"Collector's Reserve" Gilcrease Museum
Tulsa OK
2008-2011, 2013, 2014
"Gould & Ferrer Ferrer" The Lincoln Center Fort Collins, CO
"Mountain Group" Mountain Shadow Gallery
"ART JOURNEY NEW MEXICO: 104 Painters' Perspectives"
"ART JOURNEY AMERICA LANDSCAPES: 89 Painters' Perspectives"
Feature Article: "10 Artists to Watch" Southwest Art Magazine January 2007
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
A BFA as well as innumerable figure drawing & painting sessions
in concert with residential design/construction, furniture/cabinetry fabrication,
and eventually Museum Exhibition/Trade Show design & production,
all contributed to this CONSTRUCTS exhibition.
Various, wide-ranging sets of media and techniques are utilized:
• Assemblage of original/replicate artifacts & found objects
• Custom fabrication of required supports & vessels/containers
• Collage of photographs, text, etching, mono-printing & gicleé printing
• Traditional drawing/painting/sculpture.
Continual testing and revision
of new visual combinations
is not a choice, but a requirement.
My Constructs eventually emerged from this long-term, eclectic process.
