Small interview with Marcus

-How did you start a new page ? What inspire you ?

generally I just start a sketchbook page by putting something down. As simple as that. Perhaps a note or a word, or often I lay down a wash of color to break the empty page. My
idea is to DO, because I find that ideas come better when I am in the process than just cold.

I keep my sketchbook with me at all times so that anything can be an inspiration. I hope to keep an openness to my work; However, over time I've been able to see that certain
types of images, faces or words draw my attention more readily


-When are you the most inspire during a day ?

probably the evening, but again this can depend on what's going on around me and where I find myself at a given moment.


-If you paint the evening, did your experiences of the day inspire you ?

The day's events can leave a trace, and they are certainly a part of the process, but I can't say that I try to work so directly from daily experiences. I don't want my
sketchbooks to become simple transcriptions of daily life, as I think there is so much more out there.


-Did you improve a page after a while ? Why ?

I can work on a single page for a long time, depending on what is going on, but I don't go back once a page is turned. I try to keep the sketchbook as an organic process, a sort
of accretion of elements, whether image or text. The current page is where something goes, so I don't skip around in the book. this is also to avoid falling into esthetic traps,
where I might do what is easy and safe.

Paintings and drawings outside of the sketchbook can get worked and reworked, but that is another process.


-Do you try to figure out a precise idea ?

no. I never have an preliminary idea of what I'm going to do. I don't want to have any idea of what I will do in the sketchbook; I hope to find out by doing.


-Is the result on a page still in relation with the main idea ?

I hope the results on a page ahve something to do with what I'm living(seeing/thinking/feeling) at a given moment in my life. SInce I don't always know at the moment everything
that is going on, the results can be surprising.


-A page that you don't like after a while, is it a real impact on your process ? Is it bring something to you ?

the "après coup" is always interesting. There are pages that I like when I do them, but they don't speak to me later. Others take more time to appreciate. Still others never gel
into anything more than simple notes or an accumulation. But all of them can contain something that I might use later.

I would have to make a distinction between the process of the sketchbook, wherein I try to accumulate and sort out whatever interests me, and the selection of finished works that
happen to be sketchbook pages that I cut out and present.

A page that I don't like later might not be suitable for the second part, while remaining interesting in my creative process globally.


-You work with the idea of zoom, can you explain avantages of this ?

The idea of a zoom is, like other games and techniques, a way to focus on part of something, also a way to break it down, rather like taking a bite of food. It makes it easier t
chew up and digest an element, use it to build something else.


-Is your mood get an impact when you are painting ?

I think my moods have an effect on what I choose to paint and how I do it. There are times when everything flows, other times when all seems difficult. Sometimes I more
distracted, but this doesn't necessarily keep me from doig more work, it just means I'll work in a distracted manner...


-When you start to draw a page, do you always have a fix idea, or is it a kind of evolution during the drawing ?

The ideas come as I work. I shift and sift through the ideas as the work tells me what I'm doing.


-Do you like to work in a special ambiance, like in your studio, or outside ?

My favorite place of all is in the studio, alone with my thoughts and images. But I need the external world as a source of energy and inspiration, so I like working from nature as
a way of keeping the fires stoked.


-Do you work more " sur le vif " or " après coup " ?

Et sur le vif et après coup. I think the two are complementary. However it might be more precise to say I work both from nature and from memory/photos etc.


-You are always with you sketchbook, anywhere, anytime, are you drawing sometimes in strange situations, places ?

Of course, this is why I carry it with me at all times. Perhaps just to jot down a note, but it's there for whenever I want to put something down.


-What is the importance of the text in your pages ? Is it always in relation with drawings ?

The text works parallel to the images. I try to think of texts and images as equal elements, and both arrive according to the process. The connection between the texts and the
images is exactly that between two visual elements on a page; the correspondence comes from a certain point of time in my life.


-You like to play with abstraction and realism, what are you searching for with those two dimensions ?

To go beyond simple imitation and mere decoration. I think sliding between these two poles creates something much more interesting and more vital. For example I like to draw, and
i like to render things in a realistic, recognizable manner, but I am unhappy limiting myself to "nice" drawings. Plus abstract elements functions as a catalyst, breaking up the
realistic figurative elements.

The same sort of tension happens between text and image.


-At the end, what becomes the sketchbook ?

The sketchbook becomes part of my resource material for paintings or further exploration in sketchbook work. It is a sort of archive or tool. The pages that I cut out become
individual pieces, like paintings or other drawings.


-You paint canvas from pages of your sketchbook, are this canvas paint from one or many pages ?

Generally I use a page as a sort of map or compass for a painting, but ihave combined pages for a painting. Often I select a series of pages in connection with an idea or story to
develop a coherent body of paintings, and the pages can interact among themselves.


-Do you always have the control of what you are painting on a canvas from your sketchbook ?

Not at all. This is why I try to think of the pages as a sort of map. I have done paintings that were larger reproductions of sketchbook pages, but the results were

unsatisfactory. In fact I eventually figured out that the strongest pages--those I cut out without reservation as independent pieces--aren't always the most fertile ones to use as
a starting block for paintings.


-Are your canvas always painted from the sketchbook ?

No, the past year has seen a couple of series of drawings and paintings coming directly from resource material, that then enter the sketcbook after the fact. I'm continuing to
explore how this all works!

His work

Marcus is always with his sketchbook, I must say it's a part of him !
He is a very good drawer, but he is going deeper than just make some beautiful drawings.
All his work is about his daily sensations, emotions, discoverings ...


Here some exemples, from one of his sketchbooks, he has now drawn more thant 50 sketchbook


!

Marcus Mc Allister

Hello !


I want to present this artist : Marcus Mc Allister.
You can see his website here : http://www.marcusmcallister.com/