Mark L. Combs Artist Statement

Good or bad memories affect the way we think, act, and create. My twenty-two year experience in the Air Force formed my artistic foundation. Delving into my past and creating work based on recollections and feelings is a cathartic process, which I am fully invested in. At my core I am a sculptor, a person who thinks objectivity is important enough to make ideas into three-dimensional renderings. Exploring the aftermath of combat zone service, stored energy in stress and the need for immediacy are subjects I frequently cultivate.

Crude shapes and sharpness are symbolic with anxiety and despair, something I struggle with every day. These emotions are cannot be escaped, so I must live and work with them in a symbiotic fashion. The things I create evolve from being human. Death, pain, sorrow and the deterioration of the human body, soul and mind are all subjects I visualize and investigate.

What I make is what I wish to present to the public, the form it takes is always going to be open to interpretation by the viewer. I am not producing work to tell people about my emotions, I am creating work so people can deal with their own. Philosophically, this is a one hundred and eighty degree turn. I have always fashioned sculptures to purge my own demons, but understanding that the audience may or may not give a shit was a giant hurdle for me.