Mark Morale

I live in Long Beach, California, which is the home of the Aquarium of the Pacific, whale-watching tours, and other aquatic attractions. Long Beach also serves as the southern anchor to the very dirty Port of Los Angeles. Alamitos Beach — my neighborhood beach — is quite polluted, and although I see other people in the water, I would never go in it. So, while I am delighted by aquatic life and living by the sea, I’m also constantly reminded of the threat to that life and the seas. Some of my current works, like Reef Party and Coral Spawning Event portray the beauty of aquatic life, while others, such as Pacific Refinery and The Melt, show the threat and damage to those very environments.

Although I’ve dipped my toes in various types of art-making over the years, including previous works on canvas, I have no formal art training. Instead, I combine my 25+ years experience in graphic design and production as well as buyer and seller in second-market art in Los Angeles to inform my approach to abstract art in creating works that I think are beautiful and moving.

I’m influenced by the majesties of the seas – small and large — from the innumerable microbial life that fuels the food chain of the seas, to the colors of the coral reefs, its inhabitants, and on to the deep, endless, engulfing, and deep blue waters that eventually lead to horrifying lightlessness at their depths. I am moved equally by the dangers to all of these environments.

I hope that those pieces juxtapose the beauty with the damage, and make the threat to our oceans palpable, to drive action here locally, and of course globally. I want these works to resonate with art lovers, and be affordable as well. I want stewards of these pieces to talk about the aquatic world, its riches its importance to The Earth, and the endangerment to these environments around the globe.