Mark Todd Uncovers “Covered” Opening at La Luz de Jesus 9/2
Mark Todd’s Covered opens on Friday, September 2, 8 PM at La Luz de Jesus Gallery along with the fourth annual Coaster Show. Both shows run through the month and can be previewed at this link.
“Covered” includes both paintings and repurposed action figures, each with their own custom made packaging.
Mark, whose art is inspired by his love of classic era comics, answered a few questions:
Tell us about your process, do you have your pieces planned out in your head before you start drawing or do you just pick up the “brush” and start creating?
For this show and for most of the comic-inspired works I usually have the source material chosen. For the paintings, I always start in the upper left corner, where the comics information is listed, price, issue number, etc. I then work my way over to the comics title and begin working on any of the text I want to include. From there, I work with the composition I have created and jump around a bit. For collage works I tend to jump around a lot more and begin somewhere with a main focus. That could be the title or the characters.
Do your pieces go through any, or many changes from the time you start until you’ve finished?
Sometimes they do, other times they just seem to flow out onto the surface effortlessly. At times, I feel like I can’t work fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. Those are the pieces that feel really fresh and confident to me. Some pieces take much more time to reveal themselves. I try to listen to them and if need be, I will completely paint over them and begin again. I find that sometimes if I take a big risk, like destroy a few days of work in a few minutes with a large brushstroke of color the energy I am looking for in the piece returns.
Pick ONE classic comic from your childhood you wish you could have illustrated for
I think doing some work on TMNT would have been really interesting. The early issues had all this rawness to them that I loved.
If you could create a classic comic hero or villain, someone who would have appeared in a “golden age” era comic (1930s to the early 1950s, what would that character look like, and what would that character be like?
He probably would have been a villain or a tormented good guy. He would most likely have some sort of mask and cape and a special power that makes him vulnerable.
How many hours a day do you dedicate to your art? Are you a daytime or nighttime painter? What music, TV or radio do you have on (if any) when you paint?
It all depends on what I need to get done. I am pretty good with deadlines. Having said that, I would say that I spend about four hours a day in the studio actually working on art. So much of my time is busy work, answering e-mails, sending invoices, research, etc. I have to work around my family life and my daughters schedule, driving her to school and things like that. When I do work in the evenings, I get a lot more done. Less distractions. But I often pay for that in the morning! I almost always have records or NPR playing when I’m working.