Mark Beck

This painting has been on and off my easel for years. I’ve learned a lot about painting since I started it. I was finally able to express a certain feeling of vulnerability. It’s been through a lot of changes. I finally like it.

Portrait of a Child
24 x 18
Acrylic on panel

Portrait of Jojo
24 x 18
Acrylic on panel

In the Fall
12 x 12
Acrylic on canvas

Racism is implemented by those in a position of power over the labor force. The objective is to prevent a unified group objection to labor conditions, pay, hours, etc., etc. A good way to do that is to disrupt the natural harmony of workers working side by side , Black, white or brown.
Simply give a slightly better deal to whites( the owners are white) and that will sow division and enmity amongst the workforce that becomes too distracted to organize for fairness.
It’s been working for hundreds of years. People start believing the racial lies and then you have even more problems throughout society. The powerful love it and they keep it alive.
Unfortunately, it works on general populations…
Of course it’s much more complicated than that and, like a disease, spreads across borders and is now a major source of wealth worldwide…

I had a version of this one in a show in Southern California. The gallery told me a client was just disgusted that I would address global climate issues in a painting, lol.
This image can operate in many contexts as a metaphor for just about anything, which is why I keep painting these beleaguered houses caught in a crisis. These days the allusions are handier than a smartphone when you’re trying to avoid something lol.

Surge
30 x 48
Acrylic on pvc panel

Been working on this one for a couple years. I sometimes think Im finished when I’m not… I’ve had this one photographed before but, I finally cut through all the extraneous deviations. This is the final photo.
The painting will be in a solo show in Seattle in August.

New Morning Star
24 x 24
Acrylic on canvas

I was staring out the window of my studio at the light shining in on this l”canvas and I saw how beautiful the sunshine was and how still the air felt. Then I stretched a canvas and painted it.
This is not a product for a gallery. This is not decor for a wall. This is what I saw and what felt important to me at the time. By the way, the painting of the girl only exists here….

Studio Corner
22 x 30
Acrylic on canvas

My work has always sold well, for many years… and even my portraits of dark skinned people sold well. A few people who have known my work for decades told me it was my best work, yet.
But, then after 2020 something shifted…

Anyway, when sales slowed I decided I couldn’t really just keep making all these big paintings just to store them. I wanted to continue with the portraits but, I knew I would have to go smaller.

This is the first of those, which I continue to make…

The Beautiful Marianne
11 x 14
Acrylic on canvas

In a world that somehow thinks a person’s appearance is vastly more important than our shared humanity, I feel compelled to paint beauty where I see it, especially where so many deny it’s existence.

Ivy
16 x 22
Acrylic on nylon

That’s a painting of me looking into the unknown reaches of where I grew up…