The genesis of my work comes from spending many years observing the sky, and the transmissive qualities light has upon our atmosphere and the earth beneath. In certain instances, I will photograph the upper atmosphere in three dimensions to visualize the shapes and forms the changing light produces over many miles across the sky. What interests me is that which has enabled life within our world, and the natural abilities that contribute to life, and where I find myself along this seemingly eternal pathway. I seek out a connectedness between the paint’s translucent and reflective properties with those aspects I discover in the natural realm as a way of illuminating my place throughout this continuum.
Through the passage of time, and in the greater depths of space, pockets of life may have evolved on distant worlds, rich and brimming in complexity. Unveiling life’s presence in other terrestrial environments will reaffirm the splendor we see within our own fragile and beleaguered planet, a cornerstone of my work.
Throughout most of the human history, civilizations evolved in such a way that earth was seen as the only source of life in the cosmos. We now live in a time when trillions of planets exist in our galaxy alone. And with a hundred billion galaxies in the cosmos, the possibility of life evolving elsewhere is very high. We imagine worlds based on what we see here on Earth. But I also imagine worlds that carry life beyond the earth.
Life emerged in our world challenged by numerous natural catastrophes, and proclaimed its tenacity repeatedly in the face of near total mass extinction of living species. Life’s persistence, pitted against a continuously changing environment, both natural and human-generated, serves as a major facet in my work, and addresses a deepening understanding of earth processes in the sustainability of life.
- David Mark