About MARC MOSES

Born in Chicago in 1961, Marc Moses grew up in Manhattan. Returning to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago, he graduated with degrees in both Philosophy of Science and Literature. He worked as a writer, editor and journalist, first in NYC and then in Tokyo, Japan. It was not until he was nearly 40 that he discovered an entirely unsuspected capacity and talent for working with color.

(Self) PORTRAIT

I learned to sketch in my early teens when a friend's father would take the 2 of us to life-drawing classes he taught at Parsons on the weekends. I developed a definite facility for sketching, but I never felt confident in moving beyond black & white. It felt "safer" to stay within a monochromatic realm, and I continued to sketch sporadically over the years. But only ever in graphite or charcoal.

Because I can struggle with the most trivial decisions, that binary choice of black or white felt much more straightforward than selecting from among an entire spectrum. Unfortunately, the feeling of being intimidated by color, kept me from taking myself more seriously as an artist.

Everything changed around 16 years ago when, in the aftermath of a nearly 10-year addiction, I found myself evicted and reliant upon NYC's shelter system. I ended up living, for over a year, in a shelter on the Lower East Side. At that time, however, due to a philanthropist with a love of the arts, that particular shelter had an actual art room.

Apprehensive of my ability to work with color, but no longer intimidated by the prospect of failure, I gradually -- and then unreservedly -- embraced color as an essential element of my work. Beyond tapping into an intuitive sense of which colors to use, I discovered I could tell which colors to mix in order to match a particular hue. The art room was where I was soon spending nearly all my waking hours (and with the shelter's 6:00am wake up, I had a lot of waking hours throughout that year).

Working @ See Level

In exploring and developing my artistic potential, I have come to believe in an almost tangible aesthetic energy, accessed through the artistic process, which can resonate and propel one's own creativity.

Essentially self-taught as a painter, my approach has always been more intuitive than studied. Aiming for images that are ultimately more emotional than literal, even in my most representational works I generally avoid working from photos, but rely instead on pencil sketches, recollections, and imagination.

From an online zine:

THE INSOMNIAC PROPAGANDIST

An art & literary journal for the strange at heart.

Paintings by Marc Moses

No Time 2 Spare, 36″ x 36″, acrylic on canvas (2011)

I used to worry that I intentionally aimed for accessibility where so many of the artists I most admire, like de Kooning, aimed for the more abstract? Recently, though, I’ve begun to feel that if my orientation is toward the observer, it is partially because my transition from pure observer to artist occurred so late, and also because my vantage point is no longer at the center of the map. Now when I reach out to the observer, it is through the angles and abstractions of others who have pushed and distorted the envelope. Art is, for many, a spiritual endeavor. Yet, I personally believe that it is in the context of a non-theistic worldview that artistic expression holds even greater significance. Every artwork does, in fact, represent its own particular affirmation of intentionality over randomness. It was an encounter with color later in my life that triggered my birth as painter, but it occurred decades after I had first learned to sketch, which I did sitting in on life-drawing classes a friend’s father taught at Parsons in my early teens. I developed some facility drawing with charcoal back then, but never considered venturing beyond black and white, where there is an obvious right or wrong. Color would, I worried, only introduce more complications and aware of my difficulty with decisions, even as trivial as which toothpaste to buy, it seemed safest to stay away from the complexities of color.

From the Vacant Office, 54″ x 62″, acrylic on canvas (2006)

I continued to sketch sporadically over the years. Nevertheless, the feeling of being intimidated by color made it hard to take myself more seriously as an artist. Not until decades later, in the aftermath of a drug addiction and having lost my apartment, I ended up living at a city shelter on NYC's lower east side. This shelter, however, had an art studio that had been sponsored and subsidized by a philanthropist with a true love for the arts. I can honestly say that I spent most of my waking hours at the shelter there in that art room. And given the shelter’s 6:00 a.m. wake-up call for breakfast, I had a lot of waking hours that year. Rejecting my history of only sketching and drawing in black and white, I started exploring and soon discovered a passion for color which has kept me painting ever since.

L.E.S. 2025, 48″ x 48″, acrylic on canvas (2009)

Avoiding color was one of those decisions that had made perfect intellectual and logical sense. Also it is a decision which proved to be entirely wrong when I discovered a sensitivity to color that allows me to discern what to mix to match a given color or shade. Had my life followed a less tumultuous path, many things would be quite different and it is most likely I would not be a painter, and that would be too bad because painting, more than anything else, really feels like what I should be doing.

Insomniac Propagandist, Spring 2010

To see more work by Marc Moses, visit his website at www.marcmosesart.com.