Mark Rooney
Painter
Many Worlds (1999)
76" x 46", mixed media on paper
Following a life-long interest in art that began during his childhood, Mark Rooney
began painting seriously in 1975. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from
the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1981 and a Master of Fine Arts degree
from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1983.
He also spent a semester studing art in Rome, Italy in 1980. Since 1983, Mark
has combined a painting and teaching career that together forms the nucleus of
his artistic niche. He has been a regular part-time faculty member in Fine Art
at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland since 1987. In addition, he has
taught art to children, the elderly, and people with Alzheimer's disease and other
physical and psychological impairments since 1988. He has exhibited his art locally
and nationally in numerous exhibitions in various venues since 1979. His most
notable exhibitions in the Greater Washington, DC area include shows at the Washington
Project for the arts in 1990, the Anton Gallery and the District of Columbia Arts
Center in 1991, and most recently, Mount Vernon College and the John Wilson Community
Art Center in 1996. His most recent art--a series of large-scale mixed media works
on paper--uses visual narrative involving an elaborate system of pictorial symbols
to tell individual stories, supporting a general thesis concerning the human condition.
Each individual piece can be read quite literally merely by deciphering the symbols
which are presented in a fairly straightforward manner and are arranged to tell
a story. Frequently, the content or general theme of each piece is suggested verbally
in the title, giving the viewer a starting point for interpretation. His overriding
concern with use of images and techniques is to create a cohesive pictorial language
that, as clearly as possible, embodies his world view and especially his concept
of human consciousness as a limited, frail, and highly imperfect state of being.
The tension in his stories arises from the conflict that exists when reality cannot
match the human mind's ability to imagine. It is the archetypical late 20th century
theme of coming to grips with a godless universe. Within each story, he expresses
this large theme through repeated use of symbols, motifs, and techniques. Frequently
used symbols include partially constructed roads that lead to uncertain futures,
couples struggling for union, objects, animals, trees and people that float--unrooted,
divided selves with instinct and intellect at war. He reinforces the ideas that
these images suggest by employing techniques mirroring the theme of duality and
uncertainty. Through the use of cast shadows and perspective, he tries to create
spaces that are both infinite and confined at the same time. By layering materials
such as color pencil, pastels and ink, he endeavors to create forms that are tangible
and intangible, both solid and ephemeral. By employing the cubist tradition of
simultaneous views, he attempts to root his settings in the here and now while
all around the ghosts of past and future experience intrude. Like his cultural
heroes and artistic mentors, Henry Miller, Jackson Pollock, and Jasper Johns,
he disguises both a deep-rooted tenderness and a terrible fury beneath a veil
of beautiful color and line.
A selection of Mark Rooney's works
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