On display in Central Bank of Boone County
May 22 - July 14, 2023
Artist Statement
I bought some paints during the 2020 lockdown, intending to teach myself to paint representational art. I had written and drawn a comic strip for a while and had done some illustration work, and I thought maybe I could add painting to my marketable skill set. But apparently, I was not actually interested in that, because the paints did nothing for a year except make me feel guilty.
Then one day I decided to experiment with putting colors and shapes anywhere I wanted. The result felt uniquely liberating. All the visual art I had done up until that point was about achieving a specific aim. This was different. This was the first time that I was attempting truly improvisational visual work. I was astonished at how liberating it felt. And how compelling.
I generally pick some colors to work with before I start painting and that is the full extent of my preparation. I don't plan anything compositional at all. When I pick up a brush and fill it with color, I don't know what I'm going to do with it. My only editorial rule has been to obey the impulse before I judge it. In this way, the work is more akin to my previous work in the theatre. I'm concerned with the purity of improvisation and the truth of the moment. Above all else, I try, in the context of this art, not to curate the experience, but allow it to happen as it will. If a painting winds up looking agreeably pleasant or pretty, I'm happy about that, but it isn't the aim. I'd rather have an ugly painting, honestly arrived at, than a beautiful one labored over in order to impress.
Artist Bio
Martin grew up in Columbia Missouri. He started writing and producing plays when he was seventeen. During his senior year in high school, he directed his first play, “Life on the 6:55” at the University of Missouri. He studied theatre at Truman State University, where he also learned to play guitar and was the songwriter and frontman for several local rock and roll bands.
After college, Martin spent ten years in Hollywood, acting in numerous plays and low-budget movies. He played the ghost of the week on the TV show “Haunted” and wrote for season two of Cartoon Network’s “Class of 3000.” While writing and directing plays for the Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Martin was approached by Dashiell Hammett’s family and contracted to write and direct the first theatrical adaptation of “The Maltese Falcon” ever produced.
After returning to Missouri, Martin wrote and drew the webcomic “Vorto the Pirate.”
Martin began experimenting with nonobjective painting just after the covid lockdown and has exhibited at Teller's Gallery and Bar, Dogmaster Distillery, The American Club Association, The Barred Owl, The Dandy Lion Cafe, and MKLush Salon.
