Urban Solace Mural Project-An Interview with Mark Jesinoski

“The manner in which I have chosen to approach the mural painting allows me to constantly interact with the people around me working and dining in the restaurant’s outdoor patio. This interaction colors and shapes my own thoughts and feelings which become a part of the mural painting.”

Working on skin tones so the painting represents diversity-Jesinoski Arts

You’ve spoken a lot in the prior posting about the time involved in creating the mural for Urban Solace, when do you expect to have the painting completed?…The mural should be completed by the end of August with the goal of an opening late September at Urban Solace.  I will share more details as I draw closer towards the completion of the mural.

How did the piece come to be?…I was referred by a close fried of mine, Jordan Blechertas, who wanted to give me the opportunity to do this type of project.

Why is the mural important for Urban Solace?…Urban Solace wanted to bring art into a space that was empty and what I really appreciate about them is that they completely gave me artistic license to do whatever I wanted.  They trusted my artistic vision without imposing their own fears and bias.  When you think about it this is an incredibly trusting thing to do…invite someone into your business with your customers and give that person complete freedom of expression.  So that really allowed me the freedom and challenge to think about what I really want to say through this fifty-feet piece.

Layering color over the black and white images to add depth-Jesinoski Arts

What are some of the things you wanted to say with this mural painting?…I found I wanted to say what has now become the common thread of my work which is to simply observe what I see occuring in our urban cultures in this day and age for better or worst.  So I literally meditated on this idea of “urban solace” (which is the name of the restaurant) and if you look at the overall feel of the painting, you can see where I begin with very feminine, soothing, and nurturing colors in the background and then overlaid this background with an overall masculine theme.

In the beginning...interplay of feminine and masculine elements with the use of color-Jesinoski Arts

  

So getting into the content, there are characters that capture these ideas in the form of characters that exemplify power, achievement, freedom, and relationships. Taking that a step further, you will see one part of the painting has a male figure literally standing on top of another male figure pointing forward. These figures are overpowering this narcissistic hero figure (a cowboy dressed in white). As you move over the painting, you also have this opposite or opposing idea of these three nude dancing figures.  The three nudes represent the part of culture that is either ignorantly blissful or enlightened beyond the point of attachment to the base ideals of society in which we are all, at some point in time, caught up in; either way, they are free.  

The two other major themes that emerge in the mural involve a focus on relationships in the form of the broken role of the traditional family (nuclear) in our culture and our neverending struggle with the idea of monogamy.  So regarding the monogamy piece, there is a female character that is clearly married running toward a male character, at the same time she is offering her hand to another male character for him to kiss while simulataneously that male character reaches back to another female character who could care less about his attentions because she is already partnered with a female love interest.

The red bow-tied dandy seducer-Jesinoski Arts

In the final component of the piece, I have painted a strong single mother who is at once trying to balance the demands of her adolescent daughter (who is trying to assert herself and therefore, blossoming beyond her control), her adolescent son who still needs her nurturing attention, and who is also someone that wants to have a life of her own.  She represents this idea of the mother in transition.  This idea of the mother represents both our need for security and nurturing in our lives and at the same time, the need to rebel and escape the confines and control that can be imposed by the  predictability of our lives.  Hence the dichotomy that plays out in the entire piece.

  

The mother struggles to maintain identity and balance-Jesinoski Arts

  

Posted 16 minutes ago

Urban Solace Mural Project

The act of making a piece of art has many stages. Typically when I am doing a painting, there are many different steps taking place simultaneously.  Some of these steps relate to the content of the painting, i.e., what the painting will look like and the other steps deal with the making of the painting and how I, as the artist, will get it to look like I envision…so you constantly have an interplay between content and process.

For me, traditionally, as an artist I am doing this on canvas…studio or live, either way it is still on a manageable canvas that is right in front of me.  This means I can literally experience the entire canvas at once as I engage in making the artwork.

Urban Solace Mural Project-Early Stages-Jesinoski Arts

Mural painting, for me, is different from creating a traditional piece of art in two distinct ways:

1.  A mural is typically in a public forum and thus, I am forced to contemplate, in a more cognitive manner, and answer the questions of what I want to say about the art and where I want the creative process to go…this is the content side. Typically I do pieces that can be completed in the course of four to five hours as opposed to several weeks or months.  With the mural I am extending this process and therefore I am forced to slow down, be more deliberate, and more thoughtful.  In some ways, I am learning an entire new platform for creating art.
2. At every stage of the mural painting as the days pass into weeks and then into months, there is a shift between the emotional relationship of the artist and the artwork.  As a process that would usually take place in the span of two to three hours now has stretched out to two to three months, so now there's an entirely different means of coping with the artist’s emotions, feelings, habits, etc. that are inherent within every work of art.  

I could have followed more traditional or more efficient means of creating the mural such as drawing the idea up in the studio, breaking it down in layers, and painting the mural on the wall in a week, but to me, the depth and quality of the art comes out through that process of creation.  

The manner in which I have chosen to approach the mural painting allows me to constantly interact with the people around me working and dining in the restaurant’s outdoor patio.  This interaction colors and shapes my own thoughts and feelings which become a part of the mural painting.

Urban Solace Mural Project-Day 21-Jesinoski Arts