Wordless StoriesThe Art of Mark Bennion

I attended a packed opening at the O7O Gallery on Vashon Island, Washington last year. People were there to see the work of local artist, Mark Bennion. His work just knocked me out! The more time I spent with his painting, the more time I wanted to spend. It takes time to get to know paintings that have heart.

Mark applies layers of color and texture that end up reminding me of the idea of “deep time” that natural historians, archeologists, and anthropologists talk about. It is a sense of time that is beyond what we can imagine in our short lives but one that can bring us a deep sense of awe. It is rough and polished and holds deep meaning.

Michael Meade has written a lovely essay describing the work of Mark Bennion and I include an excerpt here…

"A journey that keeps beginning in silence and the stirring of shapes arising from the innermost self as in a silence that shifts to sound, at first quietly, then rising to hold light and shadow for a long time.

Meditative shapes seeking mineral memories and bone-grown images. Galvanic textures with intimate curves that keep announcing the breaking edges of silence. A staunch song of shapes that offer themselves, familiar like trees and mountains able to mark each day and withstand the night.

Painting that cycle back and transit forth through a ground of existence that includes both the future and the past. Wordless stories that invite reverie, that lean and stretch the imagination and angle towards meaning.

Paint and plaster that fix little moments on paper, like moments that the inner mind knows in solitude, that allow meanings to enter or escape. Parts of cyclical wheels that appear as if the cover of Nature was worn away to reveal shapes of the world behind the world. Puzzle-like arrangements of towers and circles on fields of cracked ground that invite us to find our own history amongst them."

To read more of this essay and see the artwork of Mark Bennion - MarkBennion.com