|
Mark Renner
Mark Renner was born in the city of Baltimore and at a young age moved to the isolated farm land of the surrounding county. Much of the stillness and solitude of rural living led to early discoveries in committing images of surrounding man and land to paper. Innumerable hours were spent drawing, painting, writing, and quietly observing.
After graduating from high school and entering college, a growing disenchantment with art and art instructors led Mark to leave university studies to concentrate on a blossoming music career. He vacillated between painting and music for the next several years, at times integrating both--initially, in 1985 for his first solo exhibition The Lost Years and once again in his 1989 exhibition Creatures that Die in a Season. 1988's recording Painter’s Joy (Restless / Dimension, USA--Emergo / CBS Europe) featured a self-portrait on the album’s front cover.
The 1980's were years of deep, personal, and philosophical searching, which culminated in a grand, spiritual awakening reflected in many of the recordings and paintings / prints produced during the period. 1990 saw the release of his first collection of lino-cuts in the book The Breath of Everyman (Montagnola Press). The prints were a continuation of what has perhaps been a recurring lifelong theme in Mark’s music and visual work--chronicles and small fragments of the journey in the life of the individual. A second book and collection of prints Sweeping the Floors in the Temple of Life was released in 2001.
The recordings Goldenacre and Memoirs of a Distracted Church Organist were released in 2006 / 2007.
Mark has exhibited throughout the United States and in Europe. He currently lives in the community of Canton, in East Baltimore.
|
