The Exceptional Artistry of Mark Summers

My favorite beer is Samuel Adams. My favorite magazine is probably Rolling Stone.  I’m nuts about Dickens’ literary classic “A Christmas Carol” and the New York Society of Illustrators. So; what is the connection? Mark Summers. 

 He is among the most celebrated and revered artist working today. He is a master of his medium. Summers’ chooses to illustrate with pencil, scratch board and  X-Acto knife. It is a precise, unusual, breathtakingly beautiful and rewarding form of etching. His creations; especially his caricature are perfect representations of his subjects. Men and women from history, past and present; along with imagined characters of fiction. The faces, postures and attitudes are immediately recognizable and true to each of his subjects. His created likenesses are uncanny.
It was from the printed pages of “Rolling Stone” that made me aware of Mark Summers’ work. I became a fast fan of what he was achieving within his efforts.  I then began to notice his work in other magazines and soon in books. Most notably; again, Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.” Another personal favorite is featured in R.L. Stine’s “Horror Hour.”  Summers embellishes the short fiction “The Black Mask” in that anthology book. His illustration talents are exhibited in “Edgar Allen Poe selected Poems & Tales” collected by Neal Gaiman. I have purchased multiple copies of his books and often given them as gifts to family and friends. He is a great artist/illustrator. Just ask The New York Society of Illustrators.  Summers’ has received numerous honors from this most prestigious organization including “The Distinguished Achievement Award”  and “Best Illustrator” for 2000 & 2003.

“Summers takes the illustrator’s art back a century by enlisting the wood engraver’s craft to the scratchboard medium. He gives it a thoroughly contemporary flavor, however, in the power of his imagery.” 

                                       Walt Reed   “The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000,”

“The most frequent question I get asked about my work is "What program are you using?  The answer to that question; none.  My materials consist of just a pencil, a knife and a pen on a regular scratchboard.” 

                                                                                                                                                                Mark Summers

                                                     

                                                           

Summers’ also possesses an assuredly enviable list of clients including: Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, The National Law Journal, Parker Brothers, DuPont and Major League Baseball. Look for his celebrity caricatures monthly in Rolling Stone’s end page feature “Last Word.”  Indeed; he is a busy man.   

Mark Summers continues to maintain the highest of quality in his work and only seems to improve with each project. I am enjoying his continually ascending star, grace and gifts. He is the long ball hitter whose best is yet to be realized and always better. Stick around and be amazed and thrilled by The Exceptional Mr. Summers.  Now; if someone could please pass me a “Sam Adams.”

Prima Ballerina Misty Copeland

It really is all about the legs. Forget about the talent, the artistry, the work ethic. Dedication to the Art of Ballet and commitment to excellence are evident; but we’ll forget them too. The grace of her every move; moves that are angelic and elegantly personified. Misty Copeland’s mystic is within her ability to entrance her audience through the command of the power of her body using the sinew and muscle of her magnificently structured and developed legs. She is a beautiful wonder.

  

Kathryn Bigelow: Zero Dark Thirty

Sunday afternoon January 20^th I find myself sitting, stunned in a dark movie theatre. The credits roll as the score plays for one of the most powerful films I have seen in many years. There’s a lot to digest here and I haven’t been this shaken and awed by a film since Francis Ford Coppola’s  “Apocalypse Now.” I remain motionless. “Directed by Kathryn Bigelow” flows from the darkness and reveals itself onto the screen then fades away. After a time I have to leave the theatre; this brilliant, unusual production piece, “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Bigelow has created nothing short of a masterpiece. It will be viewed and studied for years to come. It is already being dissected and analyzed. It is also already an intense controversy. This is the stuff that makes legends; makes the world think. Torture is nothing short of the most vile, hideous and least human of acts that human beings perform on each other. There is no connection to the heroic in it’s execution and Americans need to see themselves as heroes. The depiction of the torture of the detainees in a CIA Black Site is so realistic and brutal that I almost left the theatre at one point, to watch it is to somehow comply with it.  I sat through the scenes that went on for at least 20 minutes (an eternity in film time) and it is to the great credit of the film maker that she was able to bring me back into her vision. It was the scene with the monkeys that brought me back.  

“Zero Dark Thirty” is military slang for thirty minutes past midnight (Oh Dark Thirty) or an arbitrary time between midnight and dawn. It is very late night or very early morning depending on your point of view. The film too is very much left to the viewer’s perspective. This is good for events that are so critical to the national psyche and are actual events in the nation’s history. The bringing to justice of Osama Bin Laden was important and it was not pretty. There is no real glorification or “Hollywood” clichés involved. The film opens to a total black screen with archive recordings of the attack of the World Trade Center. Our imaginations and memories are already put to work. It cuts directly to the torture of an “Enemy Combatant” who strangely comes to remind me of Jesus. What follows is without a single moment of detachment for the viewer.

 

 

Bigelow’s vision of the events following Nine Eleven is impressive, provocative and to the credit of all her team of collaorators and crew. Bigelow takes her place now among the great artist/film-makers with this dedicated piece. I can only think that there are greater works still from her to come.