Profile
Media: Acrylic Painting, Drawing, Mixed-Media Sculpture, Digital Design and Cartooning (Marker, Prismacolor, Watercolor)
Education: California College of Art, Oakland, CA, EBA School of Art, San Francisco, CA
Studio: Santa Rosa
Representation: Self
Email: marcus@bento.media
Design Website: marcusbadgley.com
Top Full Width: Composition #1, Acrylic on Canvas, 1981, 24″ x 18″
Above Top: Pierre Mask, Tempura on masonite and wood, 1987, 27″ x 40″
Above: Orange Mask, Tempura on foamcore, 1985, 30″ x 30″
Collection of Wilkes Bashford, Tempura, mixed media on foamcore and wood, 1985, 34″ x 60″ x 12″
Artist’s Statement
I see my work as a celebration of life through controlled chaos, vibrant color, and bold shapes. My goal is to create art that has a visceral presence—that emits a positive energy into the space which it is placed. And a piece is even more successful if it can emit that energy and sustain a “relationship” with the viewer over time—the longer the better. In short, I want my work to be aesthetically radioactive, with as long a “half-life” as possible.
After graduating from high school in 1979, I attended the California College of Art for several semesters before striking out on my own. Though short, my time at CCA was dense and deeply influential. It was there that I started to paint and develop a philosophy of art that I continued to evolve over the next 10 years.
…I want my work to be aesthetically radioactive, with as long a “half-life” as possible.
Fast forward to 2015. While on medical disability leave with not a lot to do, my brother Dan challenged me to post a few works of art on Facebook. He had just completed the same challenge and I loved seeing his work—old and new alike—his 5 posts each containing several images each. Seeing his work was inspiring in itself and his challenge inspired me even more! Having just moved I knew exactly where my old binders of slides were so I dove into the past.
At first I imagined each post would consist of a grouping of each area of my profession and artistic work: cartoons, paintings, sculpture, packaging design and web design. What I found in reviewing my work surprised me. The work I had done during the Eighties—roughly twenty five to thirty years ago still worked. In fact next to that body of work my commercial design seemed so temporary and of a specific time and trend.
In answer to my brother Dan’s challenge I finally uploaded 5 batches of paintings, masks and related creations from that early phase and it felt great! I felt alive in a way I haven’t in a very long time.
In 2016, amidst launching a new design business and taking up my cartooning again, my goal is to continue creating my art, taking up where I left off and see where I go. This time around I am in it for the long haul now that I’ve accepted the fact that I am more an artist than anything else.
Marcus’s Gallery
