Mark Freeman

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Mark Freeman is a contemporary artist based in Overland Park, KS, known for his expressive abstract compositions and bold use of color. Mark discovered a passion for art early in life, inspired by the vibrant energy he sensed in the world, in nature and in his surroundings. Mark showed artistic talent as a child and qualified for an architectural scholarship before graduating high school but would turn away from all things artistic to pursue a business, sales
and marketing career starting after graduating high school.

He always knew he would be a painter. Throughout his professional sales and marketing career Mark would encounter art along the way through his business dealings and travels domestically and abroad. He had a thirst for art and longed internally for an artist life but just did not have a plan for it. But deep down he always knew he would be a painter. In 1988, Mark viewed his first Pollock at the Art Institute Chicago while on a business trip. Immediately upon seeing it Mark knew he would paint this kind of art someday. Abstract made complete sense to him. In 2017 Mark began exploring his internal voice and emoting with paint through abstraction.

Freeman is a self-taught artist with a veracious appetite for learning about art. He perpetually studies art in all forms but is compelled by abstraction. Great abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Willem DeKooning, Lee Krasner, and Helen Frankenthaler are deeply influential. He seeks to capture the essence of emotion, the movement of energy and the human experience in his work. He employs a unique technique of layering and dripping paint, resulting in mesmerizing, textured compositions that evoke a sense of movement, passion, and depth. He says, “I like to paint abstract because I like to paint things that don’t exist in the obvious.”

When not in his studio, Freeman enjoys spending time with his wife Kristi, being a partner in a local fence company (because fences can be beautiful art too) but mostly because Mark loves helping people get something important to them that they want. He also enjoys being in community with other artists, thinking about and talking about art, as well as helping other artists grow. Because of his faith, Mark is also very passionate about spreading love and giving back to humanity with his art. His art supports organizations that help children with various needs, women and children of human trafficking and military veterans. Freeman is committed to his artistic growth and looks forward to experimenting with new mediums, collaborating with other artists, and sharing his work with a wider audience.

STATEMENT

For me, art is energy. Ultimately, energy I must connect to, and with and transfer to canvas. Expressing love is at the core of my work. My paintings have a spirit that lives close to desire and poetry. My art comes out of a deep soul in the search for knowing and communicating love and meaning. To satisfy a yearning for something important, and in some instances, for healing and transformation. I seek to have my paintings convey emotion and energy through abstraction, brilliant color and active gestures that stir the heart and spark the imagination.

My work is an attempt to channel and express my thoughts, often revealing my inner emotions. My paintings are personal. Conscious thinking is eliminated, and I get lost or perhaps found in the pure enjoyment of creating. I paint what I feel in my heart, have seen in my mind and what moves me. I create to provoke emotion, thinking, and dialogue.

Rather than depicting humanity as the way we see it in pure reality, I demonstrate its inner emotion, intricacy, and how that feels in everyday life. I use abstraction and imagery that allude to human emotions. In these works, I emphasize a time or place where we have felt an innate need to express our emotions. Painting abstract art gives me the freedom to throw out all the rules. Abstraction allows me to tap into my feelings, intuition and inventiveness, and work in a more spontaneous manner. I enjoy a creative process in which nothing is ‘wrong’ and the joy comes from playing with materials, colors and shapes.

My creative process emphasizes surface, texture, movement, color and energy. I strive for uniqueness in the arrangement of color and form. My work is driven by the desire to display emotional energy. I explore color relationships in my work and use diverse materials ranging from heavy gels and pastes, acrylic, oil crayon, pastels and graphite, construction materials and fabric applied to canvas, linen, wood panels, and paper. I paint with brushes, palette knives and my hands and fingers. I sometimes beat or whip my paintings with rags and ropes to create the textural energy I am seeking to communicate.

In the studio, my work practice is energetic and spontaneous. I paint primarily with an eclectic range of music genres often played at high volume. Other times I may paint at length in complete silence. I begin with an underpainting of heavy, energetic gestures, and then add marks, lines and multiple layers. I work directly into the surface with confidence and endeavor to be innovative. I represent myself as an alchemist of images and a catalyst for emotions.

My philosophy is a very simple one: I believe in creativity, imagination, and self-expression. I am a painter. I believe art can have something important to say about the human condition. At its best, a great painting is exciting. It can take us somewhere we remember or haven’tbeen before, provoking us into new areas of thought and feeling. I mostly wish to ignite a sense of joy, but also explore the depths of pain. I create paintings that reflect the experiences and moments that touch my life. I allow imagination and emotion to blend into memorable creations. My works are a collection of memories, philosophies, and experiences. Ultimately, I hope to create a sense of connection and optimism and strive to create beauty and wonder.