Conversations with Mark Anderson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Anderson.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Founded in 2007 by Seattle journalist Gabriel Campanario, Urban Sketchers is an international nonprofit dedicated to fostering a global community of artists who practice on-location drawing.

In early 2016, Liz Vargas, Peggy Wilson, and Mark Anderson began to meet up to discuss a common interest shared by them: painting and drawing on location. Each of the three artists had been involved in the Plein air painting movement and was in search of something to complement the act of making art outdoors. Anderson had recently gotten involved with the Urban Sketchers (USk) movement as a regional administrator; not long after, Wilson and Vargas reached out and suggested that USk might meet many of the “look for’s” the three had been seeking out: USk welcomes all people, regardless of experience; there’s a strong emphasis on the social; sketching and sketchbooks are a norm rather than framed paintings, and the process is of greater value than the end product. It’s the experience that counts most. Urban Sketchers Kansas City became an official chapter in October 2017. At this time, the Kansas City chapter boasts 842 members comprised of professional artists, art educators, architects, amateur artists, and people simply interested in the camaraderie of sketch booking and interacting with others.

More information about USkKC can be found at https://urbansketcherskansascity.wordpress.com/about/

More information about the international USk organization can be found at http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/faq.html

If possible, I’d like to tell you more about Urban Sketching in Kansas City. This interview form that I sent focuses more on the individual than on the organization and the wonderful group of sketchers. Would that be possible?

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Wilson, Vargas, and Anderson have served as the Kansas City facilitators. Although time-consuming, the initial process of working with the umbrella USk organization was relatively painless. As local membership quickly blossomed, they realized it would take a village to ensure chapter organization. Since then, the facilitator’s group has grown to include Verna Whitworth Crane, George Hague, Tammie Lynn Dickerson, Jennifer Rivas, and a host of others who’ve made the monthly sketch gatherings around Kansas City an occasion everyone looks forward to.

The greatest challenge chapters worldwide have had is to confront the fallout from the pandemic. Many sketchers were confined to their homes and unable to get out on location to draw or paint. To some extent, this continues to be a challenge internationally. Local restrictions force sketchers to be incredibly creative – adversity has led to ingenuity, and members have found engaging ways to sketch “together” in the virtual world. As of June, the Kansas City chapter has begun to meet in person again, as have many other chapters worldwide. (Conversely, some chapters in areas experiencing a resurgence are not ready to do so at this time. Local, regional, and national guidance is driving our decisions.)

Aside from the pandemic, our growth has been steady, and natural obstacles have been relatively few.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Mark Alan Anderson. I am a visual artist, writer, and visual arts educator who relies on visual and verbal language to communicate stories about the human condition. I’m interested in the day-to-day human narrative and how & where we choose to live.

I’ve lived two lives, I suppose. During the 80s and 90s, I was a designer and illustrator, a career that deeply influenced my current artwork’s very graphic and stylized nature. I was an art director at Hallmark, Muller + Company, and the principal of IDea, Inc. After 9/11, I reevaluated my priorities. I’d already been teaching as an adjunct for several years at the Kansas City Art Institute and determined that working with students was what most interested me. Since that time, I’ve been an art teacher and am currently the District Coordinator of Art Education for North Kansas City Schools.

When prompted, I usually tell people I am a “student of the world.” Artistically I’m intensely interested in various ways of mark-making: economic lines, splashes of color, expressive brush marks – and how those things combine narratively.

Marks have an energy to them that intrigues me. Even doodling is essential to me (which is one reason the USk movement resonates, I think), and I interpret loosely sketched marks as a sort of new shorthand for more extensive, broader stories. A gestural mark communicates more through simplicity than can often be told by great detail.

If we knew you were growing up, how would we have described you?
We moved around a bit when I was growing up. It’s an old story, but always being the new kid led to me being kind of a smart ass. (When I was thirteen, I told people I was going to clown school.) Standing out seemed necessary, and in addition to being a “sarcastic wit,” my ability to draw also held me in esteem among my newest acquaintances.

Our family started in Kansas City, then moved to Northwest Arkansas, to very rural Southwest Missouri, and finally to my dad’s hometown (and Steve McQueen’s!) in central Missouri.

Drawing, design, and creativity have always been a massive part of my identity. I was living in Wheaton, Missouri. I found out everyone had to take a vocational agriculture class as a freshman. What the hell was I going to do with the knowledge of judging milk, understanding husbandry, or growing field crops? I distinctly recall my teacher marveling over the detailed drawings I made of the parts of plants. It was one way of making what I had to learn relevant to what I wanted to know. That philosophy continues to drive my approach to education to this day.

Like many professionals in the visual arts, I also have a musical side. I played in concert band, pep band, jazz band, and marching band all through school and was considered a music major. After college, my interests evolved into something a bit more esoteric as I discovered a love for traditional Irish and Appalachian folk music. I play the hammered dulcimer indifferently (I’m terribly out of practice) and the Irish tin whistle with more panache.

Contact Info:

• Email: azorch@sbcglobal.net
• Website: https://justsketches.wordpress.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azorch/

Image Credits
© Mark Alan Anderson