Marcus Dowd

Painter, sculptor & photographer.

 

From memory what was the first thing you made with your hands?

I can't remember what the first thing I made was although I think it was som pottery that I created where I took a round pot and squashed it in the middle so it looked like a bone from above. I think I was about 13. It lasted for many years before being accidentally left outside in the rain and falling to pieces. It was nice to be able to return it to the earth though.

After that, I didn't do any pottery again for many years. The next one I remember doing was a totem pole in my early 20s. I was recovering from a bout of ill health and I poured a lot of my feelings into the little totem pole (having always felt some affinity with Native American spirituality). There was some question at the time whether it would survive firing given the design but it made it through unscathed. Twenty years later, that totem pole still stands on my shelf looking over me. I hope I never break it, it reminds me of the power of art to heal.

What are you making with your hands right now?

I have had an interest in photography for many years and continue to photograph my surroundings whenever I can. However, I am currently working on a painting project (painting having been something I've only taken up in the last twelve months). This project involves murky images of a cityscape but with the green man, the archetypal force of nature peeking out from behind a building. I have always felt a strong affinity with nature and the way indigenous people portrayed the forces of nature. This painting is to symbolise that no matter how we rip out trees and attempt to concrete over everything, nature can and will still come back. One only has to look at a city such as Pripyat in Ukraine (abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster) to see the truth of this. Pripyat now stands abandoned with trees coming up through buildings and grass growing over the concrete.

Why is the art of handmade so important?

I believe that handmade things portray far more emotion than machine made things could ever do. The artist can really put their soul into the object and create something that preserves their emotions, surviving sometimes many years after the death of the creator. When I look at things I have created, they take me back to how I was feeling when I created the object. Sometimes that takes me to a happy place, sometimes not so happy but just as significant as it symbolises my strength in overcoming adversity at the time.

All photographs courtesy of Marcus Dowd.
Marcus can be contacted via Splinter Contemporary Artists.

See more of Marcus's work at Splinter Contemporary Artists on Facebook.

 

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