Mark Bowles Interview Continued...

Mark Bowles- Sunset-Acrylic On Canvas- 40" x 50"- 2012

MB That and it transcends; the struggle that I go through in a painting and how it’s resolved and I’m happy with it, it transcends to the very essence or whatever the emotional process was.

JM That’s the point of being an artist, in my view anyway, is to make a connection that other people can latch onto. And sort of see themselves in it or see something totally different.

MB When paintings become too production like, doesn’t mean they won’t sell, it just means they’re not connected, they’re missing that key piece, that I wouldn’t want to leave out. I like producing the best work I can do at the time and I’m respecting what my craft is and think this is respected. And I think that is the secret to having a career in this, trying to only put out your best, and being very careful, especially being a young painter, be careful what influences you. To make sure it’s not money and it’s not a gallery.

JM Which is extremely hard.

MB Yeah, well there’s no other business like this. They don’t even call it a business. If you’re an actor, you can say I’m in show business, but you can’t say I’m in the art business. It’s very hard.

JM Especially with Miami Basel that has just blown up over the past few years. I know a few people in New York and Chicago that were really successful right out of school or shortly thereafter, that have told me privately that now they are kind of cursed.

MB Yeah….

JM Because now people have them in this little peg already with their work and they’re trapped. They sell consistently but every time they try to expand, they get slapped by the gallery saying, “No, no, no this is not going to work…keep doing this because it sells and we can take it here and there. And they have this constant pressure to make work and sell, and keep up and they never grow. So I guess be careful what you wish for…

MB Right. And you to do it on your own terms. For them my advice would be to stop showing. Last year I had a huge circus of shows going it seemed like every month was a new opening, it was constant. It was way too much, I shouldn’t have done that. But for so many years, you don’t say no, you just don’t. But I learned now that you do, because shows can be an awful lot of pressure. 

Because you want a strong show, you want a decent body of work, and you can’t judge how long that’s going to take. And also that means you have to commit that work to a show, which means you have to pull it out, so when it goes to the gallery, they have to now market them which means you can’t sell them. So your income is kind of locked until that show happens. It’s a huge commitment on my part and it’s a huge commitment on the gallery’s part. But none of my galleries tell me what to paint. They make suggestions, but I don’t take them. I don’t work that way, I guess it would be great if I could, but it always turns out the opposite with me.

JM We talked about being spontaneous and if you came in with a plan, that’s lost. And at your age you have enough momentum with your work and your career, you could tell a gallery, “No I’m not going to do that,” and they shouldn’t be offended at all. Where as me, they could say, “Well I know more about the business than you kid, I think this would help you…”

MB There’s always another gallery. When I was younger there certainly wasn’t, I would take any gallery I could get into. Now it’s different, I get asked into galleries and now I have to debate how much work I want to produce, and there’s only so much work I want to do. And of course there is the business correspondence and all that which takes lots of time.

JM You need an intern! You don’t even have to pay them and they get college credit!

MB (laughs) I do! Maybe CSUS or American River would have some.

JM I’ve looked into and I’m not nearly as busy as you.

MB Well I have contracts now, things that I have to commit to, so I read it and then double check with my wife to see if it’s legit.

JM Well you get a certain number of zeros behind a painting, and it takes on a new meaning. With the potential of a lot of money going toward either party…

MB There’s that “flake on galleries” thing that artisst tend to do or are known for. I’m on both sides, I’m not against galleries or for them, but there’s a lot of artists that have a real grudge against galleries, and I don’t really think they take it seriously. You have to have good communication, it’s a relationship. And you have peoples’ income there too, they’re people who make money off of you, but they have to, that’s the understanding, they have to pay rent and utilities and all of that. It’s a hard business; I would never want to run a gallery. I represent myself here in Sacramento; I don’t have a gallery here, and don’t need one.

JM Yeah.

MB There are some galleries I pay more attention to than others because I have a better relationship with them. And there are some galleries I get asked into, which was very cool when that started happening. That adds a little bit of stress when it’s new, but you gamble and take chances.

JM Yeah and now you have to factor in the question, “Is this gallery honest.”

MB I think the ratio is 80% of people tell the truth; the other 20% are just full of shit! I used to think that 100% of people tell the truth; they don’t. That’s still a hard concept for me to get, but there’s a lot of people out there that are just for themselves.

JM There is a certain gallery in Davis, which may or may not have a Greek sounding name, which has a horrible reputation. I’ve heard horrible things about the gallery from artists, who have shown there, and some of them continue to show there and the place is still in business! I just don’t get it.

MB Well in those type of situations you have to hire a lawyer, and if you live far from the gallery, you have to hire an out-of-state lawyer. I got all my work back from a gallery in Atlanta Ga. after a year and I had to pay for return shipping too.  Although I wasn’t involved, I got contacted by attorneys for other big artists to see if I was ripped off at all, because there are some huge losses being reported. But when you’re talking big name artists and huge sums of money, lawyers have to get involved, and lawsuits are never fun. Plus it’s emotionally draining, and most artists I know would rather not go through all of that.

JM I agree.

MB Let’s move onto happier topics!

JM Do you still paint with your hands?

MB No, almost never. I use brushes and I love really cheap brushes like a $1 a piece ones that fall apart. So some of my canvases are full of hair, and someone asked me if I had a cat, and I said yeah, and he said there is cat hair all over your paintings! I replied, no those are just bristles from the brushes. He said no it’s cat hair, and I said no I know exactly what it is; it’s from the brushes. I like cheap brushes for two reasons; one they’re not expensive that you have to worry about taking care of them, and two I just like the way they work. Sometimes I’ll use just one size brush, and three colors just to see what I can come up with. 

JM Is this one of those experiments?

Mark Bowles- Vibrant Sky- Acrylic On Canvas- 50 x 40 inches- 2012

MB It was. It has this metallic tint to it, but I’m not sure if I like it. It’s impossible to photograph, and it has interest, but it’s a gimmicky interest. You can look at it from different angles and it changes and it has the light and motion thing, but I don’t know if I want to go there. Right now it seems popular that people are coating their paintings with shiny, heavy surfboard material. It kind of becomes a gimmick, so instead of selling your artwork, you’re selling a gimmick, and the gimmick will run out, it’s just a matter of time.
 

JM It comes to mind the early 1980’s when Julian Schnabel was doing those plate “paintings.” He made quite splash, very gimmicky but then the plate thing kind of faded away.

Julian Schnabel-Bob's World-Oil, Plates & Bondo On Wood-96 x 144 inches-1980

MB He’s actually quite brilliant. I don’t know if you’ve read his writings or heard him speak, he’s brilliant, way over my head. I think he has a good understanding of what it’s about.

JM I’ve always enjoyed his movies more than I did his other works.

MB Yeah, good stuff.

JM He often says he has an ego the size of Texas:

"I’m the closest thing to Picasso that you’ll see in this fucking life" 

MB Well he kind of took his whole game to the top of everything.

JM And he still shows internationally, like Hong Kong and Spain with paintings that are a $1million plus. He’s done very well for himself.

MB (laughs) Yeah…

JM But back to the art, I could see the need to stay away from shiny, slick looking, trending kind of finish

MB Because I want my substance to be painting, and that’s important to me. There’s so much changing in art, and some people would consider landscape painting dead, in a lot of art circles it is, but that’s fine, I still love it.

JM Every time an art critic declares something is dead, there’s always a group of people that say, ”Oh yeah? Well fuck you! It’s not dead to me!” It’s like saying water is irrelevant to human beings now. It’s so idiotic to say things like that. And if someone says, “It’s dead” that’s the perfect time to reinvent it.

MB And that’s what an artist should be doing, reinventing and working with whatever fits with them. I certainly don’t want to be painting for critics, there’s was a point in my life where I thought that was the most important thing; to shake up the art world and be the whole Andy Warhol type thing, I think every artist on some level wants that. I had success in college, then it went away for a while by my own doing, which is sometimes what happens, but I’m very glad that it did. And now I’m very happy I that I’m where I am now. Persistence has paid off.

JM A long term investment view…

MB  There’s the option of teaching, I thought about that, for a few minutes!

JM (laughs)

MB I just didn’t think I had it in me. Some people can do it, but I couldn’t just work all day and then come home and paint. I would be very, very frustrated. So my beginning was fortunate, to be married to someone who understood it. I was very upfront about it, “This is my journey, and I’m going to be a painter.” It wasn’t negotiable, so with that said, she knew that wasn’t going to change. So I was fortunate in that way, I’ve been married; this year will be 30 years.

JM Congratulations! Not only did you find someone that loves and supports what you do, but also you have been married 30 YEARS! Nowadays…well, that might be the headline of this interview!

MB (laughs)

JM Something else that people don’t realize, especially among my age group, is that a marriage, and a relationship aside from marriage, is WORK. IT IS A TOOONNN OF WORK AND COMPROMISE!

MB It is! Communication and not bailing when times gets rough either.

JM Talk about the Art In Embassy’s program that happened recently. How did that come about?

MB There’s an Art In Embassy’s program that Jian Wang told me about. He was in it and he explained it to me; basically it’s a program through the State Department that you apply for, and as the ambassadors turn over, they’re able to fill the residencies and public spaces with art. So they choose through websites, and this is the third time I’ve been chosen. So I’ve been to Mexico City, Mexico, Katmandu in Nepal, and now Mauritius, which is off of Africa. And then I was invited over there by the ambassador in the next year or two, so I’ll probably go do that since that doesn’t happen that often.

JM That’s on the State Department website?

MB Yeah, and I know they have a Facebook Page. You could find it through the State Department in Washington DC.  So there are different parts of it, mine is an art loan program, and they send a company from New York to get it, they crate in front of you and then it’s off to wherever. It’s a very cool program to get involved in.

JM It’s an honor, like you’re representing the United States in a different country.

MB  Exactly!  And there’s other parts of the program where you can go teach or give seminars, but I’m not involved in that. You should look into it.

JM Yeah why not? The worse they can say is no, which wouldn’t be any different than a gallery saying no!

MB (laughs) Exactly!

JM Any parting words of advice for younger artists? Or any age?

MB Well you have to do what you love to do. And you have to do it for the right reasons, if you’re in the business for money, then there’s no real point. 

JM Be a stockbroker! Manage a portfolio or something, but don’t be an artist!

MB (laughs) Right, no, don’t!

JM Don’t let Miami Basel fool you.

MB And you can never guarantee that you’re going to make a living off of it, you can just never plan on that happening. So as long as you can accept that, and are ok with it, it should be an easier road to follow. And no one is going to make you do it, if you want to be a painter, be a painter, but you have to have a reality check of what it can be. It can be very difficult, but very rewarding, and that’s the bottom line. It was worth the gamble to me, to make sure I got what I wanted out of life.

I have no regrets. 

See more of Mark's work at his website, Mark Bowles.com

*At the rate I type, one interview a month might not be doable. Maybe one every other month.