MARK GLEASON

- by Christopher Vibberts

Ladder by Mark Gleason in a 2016 exhibition at La Luz de Jesus Gallery - Los Angeles, CA

A couple years ago I was in L.A. to record and shoot a music video with David J and the Gentleman Thieves. Two of my cohorts were eager to take me to the legendary Soap Plant + Wacko complex on Hollywood Blvd., well known purveyors of post-pop culture. For about an hour and a half we sifted through the dazzling kaleidoscope of books, art, music, novelties, vintage nostalgia, and gadgets of the future. We finally made our way to the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in the back, which turned out to be the impetus for this excursion. A friend of their's, an outstanding artist, was having an exhibition that month at the gallery. 

​In contrast to the swirling, sensory edge of chaos we were teetering on moments before, I was suddenly faced with stark, hypnotic images frozen in time. Before me: a crow silently perched atop a vertically suspended ladder, a stallion nonchalantly taking a piss, a shirtless man frantically deconstructing a mountain of rocks...one by one. This was my indoctrination into the stunning and surreal world of Mark Gleason.

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Since that afternoon Mark and I have caught up at art exhibits and music events, and I've kept a close eye on Mark's work through his website and Facebook posts. Always coveting his latest creation for my own walls. As a film composer, I constantly saw Mark's paintings as great inspiration for a sombre requiem or grinding dirge, an avant-garde fantasia or even just a simple pop tune. But when the MUSIC FÜR CREATING project was percolating in my studio I decided to turn the tables and ask Mark if he would be interested in creating a work inspired by my music.

​Mark was immediately enthusiastic citing Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Harold Budd, William Basinski, Stars of the Lid, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Aphex Twin as frequent aural influencers during his creative process. Fantastic!...yet frightening, as I was now about to give him my album to listen to following this list of the experimental and ambient music elite.

The watery sensation in the music on Instar made a perfect soundtrack to create this painting.

Following Mark's first listen to Instar he immediately got back to me with his impressions, "I kept picturing a grotto or underground body of water, with dripping stalactites. I swam in the Blue Grotto in Capri once, and I was getting that same vibe of a warm, safe, wet, enclosing but not claustrophobic space. I also pictured the imagery in David Lynch’s Dune, where the drips fall on the black water surface hidden on Arrakis."

Mark Gleason's finished painting Geta O Azukeru

Mark shared with me further inspirations for his painting. "I was a little obsessed by two things with the inception of this: Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata, in which the protagonist throws away his geta, and they are later seen floating down a stream. That film scene also reminded me of the lovely long take of river grass swaying in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris."

'Geta o azukeru' means literally 'to give up one’s geta' i.e., to put your situation into another’s hands. Which, is what I did as I listened to your music. 

I am deeply honored to have played a small part in Mark Gleason's creative process during the completion of Geta O Azukeru. Take a minute to head over to his website and dive deeper into this incredible world of striking imagery that slowly burrows its way into your head, heart, and emotions, all impeccably crafted with a master's hand and a sage's soul. Follow him on Facebook to find out when his next exhibition is. To see his work in person is a truly captivating experience.

Mark Gleason grew up in Connecticut, received a BFA in Studio Arts from Syracuse University in 1984, earned a Masters Degree in Art Education in 1989 and has been teaching art in the public schools for twenty-nine years. Mark has a resonance with solitary places, particular animals, and to the human figure. His painting is shaped by film and music, as well as by psychology, philosophy, and literature. He often places his figures in undefined, mysterious settings as a way of investigating the process of how we make meaning of ambiguous situations. His figures are familiar but enigmatic, so that their story and relationship is oblique. Experience more of Mark Gleason's work at: www.markgleason.org

Christopher Vibberts is a producer and film composer whose work can be heard in many award-winning short, animated, documentary, and feature-length films, as well as campaigns for AAA, Honda, Marriott, Lagunitas, Beats by Dr. Dre, ESPN, Sector 9, Subway, National Geographic, & many others. He currently records & performs with David J (Love and Rockets/Bauhaus) playing sitar, guitar, keyboards, lap steel, Melodica, and flute and releases ambient music under the name of Chrystal Für.