Rhythm Of Arts Creative Space
Roselee Kruppa
Not too long ago, he decided to look at a studio space in Snyder and consolidate/rent out the places in the city. I met Mark at the new studio and sat down with him there to talk about his life in the Buffalo and New York City/California art scene, the important commercial work he has undertaken around town, and his plans for a gallery and studio opening sometime in October. I also chatted with him about what inspires him and what art in Buffalo and beyond means to him and how it enriches his life and expands his world.
From there, I began to take art classes and went to a great grammar school called School 81 known for its art program, industrial arts, and music. The emphasis used to be a lot more prevalent on music and the arts growing up, and now it seems that more and more schools are cutting important programs such as these. I was very lucky to experience a great education here in Buffalo fully immersed in the arts. From there, I went to Buffalo State College and was fortunate to study abroad in Sienna, Italy.
Travel inspires me and my art, and I still find inspiration wherever I travel to. Throughout my study abroad time in Sienna, I traveled around Europe. Looking back, that changed my life completely because I was totally immersed in art. It propelled me when I got back to the States to delve right in.
After graduating college, you lived in New York City and California. What was the art scene like in those cities when you lived there, and what inspired your art during that time in your life?
I was lucky enough to live in New York City after school and show my work at art studios in Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. That really changed me: learning from gallery owners and curators in the City inspired me to create. The amount of work that was necessary to be successful in New York City was nothing less than daunting but it taught me a lot.
California also provided me with inspiration but in a different way as the two places are so different. I went to San Francisco and Santa Monica, and lived there for about five years. When I came back to Buffalo as a fine artist I met another local talent that introduced me to the interior world. I burned the midnight oil with painting at night, which was when I was most inspired and the only time of day that would allow for spare moments to create those pieces.
This is a new venture and I want it to be similar in some ways to my old spaces but with a new breath of life in it and trying new things here. Classes may happen at the new studio space: I would like to teach different things like art restoration and architectural art which are necessary skills to restore churches, etc. and so many of the old buildings around Buffalo. If I teach these classes here, I want to make sure they are all geared toward the professional world, to teach specific skills to local artists. Skills and classes that I would have been interested in learning.
A lot of your fine art is oil on canvas but the pieces are fairly large. Why is it important to create art on such a big scale, and what do you hope the person viewing that art gets out of it when they see it?
It started when I created pieces at the Tri-Main Studio space on Main Street. I created a great deal of work there and it was such a big studio space, it was a natural progression to want to make larger pieces. The bigger the studio is, the bigger you want to work.
All of this nature work comes from my past: I have been a city guy my whole life. I grew up in the City of Buffalo and lived here and in places like NYC as an adult. In a way, it is an escape from my everyday life in the city.
I am a true outdoorsman and have done serious hiking throughout my life. My family and I love the water and being outdoors together. When I take walks out in nature it is a complete juxtaposition of my daily grind and life. Perfect natural rhythm is in nature and I respond to that. I hope the peace and tranquility I find in nature by myself or with my family reflects in my art.
I use oil on canvas. The canvas I use is a very heavyweight canvas. It is on stretcher bars. The pallette I use is very important as it creates a mood. My earlier work is much more escapism. I am definitely attracted to patterns, and wind. I like how movement happens and the beautiful formations that happen in nature which I bring to each oil on canvas piece I create.
With the big pieces, the entire canvas is energized, when it is that happens your mind goes somewhere differently. I dig what happens when I am inspired and what pulls me in. My hope is to pull people in too.
Besides all of the fine art that you produce, you have a real eye and passion for commercial/interior work which is a completely different endeavor for an artist. Can you tell me a little bit about your history with that?
In 2011, I re-entered the architectural art world for important reasons. My first job was the restoration of the Hotel Lafayette, working with the Historic Commission, to recreate burl wood panels, marble panels, and gold gilding throughout various areas. Since then I have worked on numerous historic restoration jobs that include notably Our Lady of Victory, Blessed Trinity, The Gold Dome, The Statler, and The Main Building that I am presently working at and hugely proud of. Another project that I am about to be part of is with SACRA, led by my friend and UB Architect professor Dennis Maher (Assembly House and SACRA). We will be doing a workshop, with his students creating a very cool wall installation influenced by Charles Burchfield at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center.
You grew up in Buffalo and have made a great life here creating beautiful art and restoring architectural gems around the City and beyond. What do you love about the Buffalo art scene, and living here?
Last year, I began to integrate this persistent narrative within my art and explore why it has resonated so deeply. These paintings reflect my process of creative exploration and how this phrase has developed visually as well as conceptually. What have emerged are abstract pieces that are textured and rhythmic, densely worked and sculpted.
My studio at 6 Vernon Street in Somerville is shaped somewhat like a bowling alley, with one large window at the end. I like to work on the two opposite walls closest to the window, with an old, ratty chair in the corner for periods of contemplation. Half of my painting titles are born in this chair, the other half, usually in the bathtub (which is not in my studio). My space is cramped but tidy, with various tables and a desk that pens me into the space I am working. I have my paints and various tools for application laid out in an organized way so that fledgling pieces can begin in a completely disorganized way. This is the best way I know to initiate unexpected results. I always hope that something interesting might come out of the chaos.
* Awardees of the MCC Artist Fellowships Program are among the artists invited to launch projects on United States Artists Projects, one of the crowdfunding sites that artists can use to support their art practice.
For the 30th Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition, we invited artists to share works that explore the rhythms that shape their lives, both creative and personal. The 25 finalists for Rhythms were selected from an international pool by jurors and the exhibition featuring the works of all included artists will be hosted virtually here on our website. A selection of the artworks awarded First, Second, Third place and Honorable Mention will also be on display in the Visitor Center through September 8th, which is open during our tour hours.
It was at this time in my early 20s that I began to notice unusual experiences occurring when playing with sounds and rhythms including shifts in consciousness, and felt states of heightened sensory awareness. These extraordinary experiences also occurred when listening to sounds in nature or when listening deeply to a piece of music. Once while meditating in the early morning at the Petrified Forest in Arizona, I heard an unusual deep low tone that sounded like an intense buzzing or hum. This sound was so loud that I thought there must be an electrical transformer nearby. But all that was around me was billion year old petrified wood. This was one of several unusual experiences I began to notice associated with sound and rhythm. While playing improvisational music with others, I often noticed changes to my internal state, such as a sense of losing time, and a felt sense of merging with the rhythms and with the other sounds coming from the players around me. I often had experiences where my hands seem to know what to do before my mind could catch up. In all of these experiences I began to wonder what was occurring and if others experienced sound and rhythm similarly.
While I have studied and performed improvisational music and practiced as a clinical counselor for the past 30 years, I am not a music therapist. I am a licensed counselor and expressive arts therapist. My orientation is focused on improvisation as a professional performing musician, trained in jazz techniques and theory. My other orientation is as an expressive arts therapist. In my teaching and clinical practice I follow the theoretical perspective of the pioneers in my field (Johnson, 1984, 1985, 1999; Knill, 1995, 1999, 2005; Levine, 1992; McNiff, 1981, 1992, 1998, 2003; Robbins, 1994. 1998; Rogers 1997). This theoretical perspective encompasses an interdisciplinary approach to arts based therapies with the understanding that expressive arts therapy is itself a discipline unto itself. As an expressive arts therapist, I use a range of art forms in clinical practice including improvisational music.
In 2006-2008 I conducted a research project as part of my dissertation, to study the phenomenon of improvisation related to embodied transcendent experience. In this research study I was interested in how other musicians experienced improvisation and what correlations there might be for therapists that use sound and rhythm in clinical practice. For this research I was particularly interested in the phenomenon of attunement (defined in more detail below).
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