Dara Mark

Dara Mark Artist Statement

My artwork reflects a sensitivity to flow developed over decades of meditative Chi Gong practice (Chinese energy work).  Chi flows through the body as rivers and streams flow, as life itself flows, as love flows from the heart.

I set up situations that allow my materials to speak for themselves.  Paint pigments are allowed to flow with gravity, act naturally and settle down. Synthetic paper is painted and layered to take advantage of its translucency.   Nothing is forced or hidden, although the viewer is encouraged to look a little deeper than the surface, into the layers within.

I often impede the paint movement within a geometric grid of some sort.  I have used stacked bars of paint, tight-packed grids of circles, and rectangular “charts.”  In this way all sorts of accidents and incidents can be incorporated into an ordered whole.

The value in my paintings lies in each individual’s spiritual/emotional response.  A whisper of color, a suggestion of allusive form, may be powerful in an art that aims to evoke quiet awareness.