MARK GOULD
BIO • STATEMENT
An early watercolor study of the artist age four (1955)
By his uncle Franklin "Frank" Jespersen
(An artist & art professor at Queens College, NYC during the 1950's)
Photography from the day the watercolor (above) was painted
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 boats or soldiers, card-board boxes castles. Later, his professional "Museum & Trade Show Exhibition" experience of handling & displaying one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable artifacts and expensive, high-tech components 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 watercolors provided windows into the world of art. Ultimately, his uncle's artistic success gave Gould's family permission to support his pursuit of an education and career in the arts.
He had no access to formal art instruction until freshman year in college. Overwhelmed by large university classes and an abysmal, unsatisfying, academic performance, Gould planned to drop out at the end of the school year. At the last minute during his second semester registration- in a "what-do-I-have-to-lose" moment - he enrolled in a basic "Design 101" art class. This new discipline quickly intrigued him:
"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-five 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 not his life's goal, 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/craftsman experience in home-building, furniture & cabinet-making, trade show & museum exhibition production - 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.
COVID-19 constraints unexpectedly provided time to experiment. His artisanal skills melded with more traditional fine art practices. Combining an unorthodox painting process with psychologically-intricate, bas-relief, mixed-media studio compositions eventually produced his 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 a theme of "WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN NOT". His effort to deliver this message is evolving 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