Mark cool Art

NYC Curator Jason Andrew visited my workshop and he had this to say about me and my work:

“Mark Cool loves the thrill of the hunt for cool vintage relics, reclaiming wood and found materials to make his art. Salvaging all his materials, his passion is to rescue cast-off stuff and give it new life almost in a historic preservation kind of way. Self-taught, his assemblages and sculptures capture a rustic and primitive spirit.”

My salvaging is a big part of my process. Origin, age, and patina of objects matter a lot. Feel. The older the better, and yes, I love the historic preservation aspect- taking pieces of history and giving them new life.

There is definitely an element of adventure in my sourcing of materials- I get stuff from abandoned buildings, old homes that have been gutted, dumpster diving, curb-picking, and just plain picking stuff up that I find on the street, railroad tracks, in the woods, or in a field. Most of my stuff is found and salvaged by me. On rare occasions (I’d say 5-10% of the time) I get stuff from thrift stores, reuse stores or metal scrap yards.

I see what I do as similar to quilting- taking a bunch of disparate objects and pieces and making them into a pleasing whole.

The materials speak to me and I follow my intuition in assembling them.

Currently on hiatus from making art.