Mark Vargo

Mark Vargo
Colusa, California, USA

STATEMENT

I seek to create images that are familiar, yet challenging. I create artwork that draws you into the known and then reveals details and perspectives that are unexpected to the viewer. My work is made from found and collected materials, often drawn together by coarse thread. This act of finding and drawing together is essential to my process, an act at once both therapeutic and empowering–giving life to discarded and unnoticed things–elevating paper, thread and other materials to the level of art.

My current body of work consists of images created by a unique method of joining disparate materials through hand sewn and collaged paper. Found paper is chosen and cut based on intuition, pattern, color and concept.

Each paper element is arranged, adhered to a backing of watercolor or vintage paper and then hand sewn with coarse thread, binding each individual element together into a cohesive final product.

BIO

With a BFA from the University of Illinois and more than ten years working as a multidisciplinary creative, I have developed a unique vision and craft for my artwork that involves traditional collage techniques combined with non-traditional materials, such as metal and found objects, sewn together with a course thread. Location, emotion, and contemporary world issues influence my work. My art has been shown in galleries and museums around the US, and has won awards including Honorable Mention at Art Melt Louisiana, Capitol Park Museum.

ARTIST CONTACT

(440) 251-4436
[click to email]

IMAGES