q) What is your name and what do you do?
a) My name is Mark Powell and I make sculptures.
q)When did you really get into art?
a) I made my first serious drawings around the age of 18, prior to this I drew only occasionally.
q)How did you come to the realization that you should try your luck at art on a more serious level?
a) Well, I always knew that sooner or later I would have to start getting serious about it, ever since seeing an exhibition of James Gleeson's work when I was about 11, I may be sentimentalizing that moment and placing greater significance on it now, however, I do believe the need to eventually start making images has always been in the back of my mind.
q)How did you discover the particular style that you have?
a) Well I think it's obvious I have combined elements from many different sources, this cannot be helped, I just do what pleases me in this respect. There is though, a certain look of decay and a particular set of colours which I use that simply work well for me, and when I stray from these elements I find that the work often fails.
q)How would you describe your style?
a) A combination of elements that please my eye.
q)Who or what influences your art?
a) I am influenced primarily by painters, in the formal sense, and conceptually by the interminable chatter inside my own brain, this is where ideas come from, although I acknowledge boredom as a valuable influence upon my motivation to want to make art to begin with.
q)How often do you create a new piece?
a) Because I have to fabricate every individual piece, and due to my obsession with detail, I am unable to put out a new work as often as I would like, however I am hoping this will change when I get settled into a new studio space and I am able to develop a more solid routine.
q)What kind of success have you had with your art?
a) Well, I have only recently 'exhibited' images of my work on-line after spending many years working in a kind of vacuum. I wanted to gauge other peoples reactions and to test whether or not I was deluding myself. The responses have been pretty positive though, which has been encouraging, as has the interest expressed by a few established artist whom I admire very much.
q)What would be the ultimate goal for you and your art?
a) I would simply like to improve on the level of craftsmanship and also to produce larger and more detailed works. Conceptually, I know I need some as yet unspecified idea to manifest, although I realize this can only be achieved through the process of working.
q)What do you see as an accomplishment in the way of art?
a) What I consider an accomplishment, with all art, is when it alleviates the boredom and monotony of life, and helps to provide the visual equivalent of a good meal, I suppose living amongst the suburban sprawl has left me with a desire to find a richer alternative to the retinal bread and water I am so used to.
q)What kind of message, if any, do you try to convey through your art?
a) I do not try and convey any message at all and I instinctively recoil from most art that does. I am interested however, in sort of devolving, deforming, disfiguring, deranging and destroying the human form, and perhaps eventually dissolving it, to see if there is anything of any substance there, quivering in the ooze at the end of the line.
q)Sum up your art in one word.
a) Cruel.
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