Founding member of the Denver EDGE Gallery Mark Brasuell’s exhibit, Mascara, continues in the Adams State University Art Department Cloyde Snook Gallery through October 12. An artist lecture will begin at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, in the Art Building room 227 and a closing reception will follow until 7 p.m.
A painter, sculptor, and multimedia artist, Brasuell said his life and artwork revolve around his personal experience. “I use energy, emotion, and a physicality in creating my artwork. I usually start out with a vague idea about the emotional impact I want the piece to have, but I rarely have any thought out plan of what the finished piece will look like. I let my intuition, body movement, and emotional state guide the piece out of my mind and onto the canvas or drawing surface. I reserve all judgment until the final stages of the piece.”
For Brasuell, the last 10 or 15 minutes of the painting is the best part. “In a way it is exactly like a drug. I get euphoric and excited about how it turns out.” For the last several years he has focused on what conceptual abstraction. “It is based on color, action, and some personal and emotional ideas. There is usually a background and foreground, vibrant and moody colors, and an occasional ghostly image or two. I want people to make up their own minds about exactly what these images are, but I try to point the viewer in a particular direction. I want people to enjoy my artwork and to see something new in the paintings every time they view them.”
Mascara is based on the idea of a final layer added to the face to enhance the overall appearance of the person. “I used it as a foil to enhance the less bold parts of a painting thus pointing at the fact that everything is important.”
Brasuell teaches at Metro State University of Denver. He received a BFA from Texas Tech University, and a master’s degree from the University of Denver.
For information about the Cloyde Snook Gallery call the Adams State University Art Department Office, located in Alamosa, Colo., at 719-587-7823.
