Hopkinesque Studio: 2 White Well Drive*, Rhinebeck 12572 | 845-337-1358 | Handicap Accessible (cobblestone walkway, one step into studio) | *Open Labor Day Monday
hopkinesque.com  | markhopkinsart@yahoo.com

Artist Statement

After graduating college in 1981, Mark Hopkins realized he was a young man with very limited life experience from which to draw ideas for his career or his art. He set out for South East Asia to study the mysteries, beauty, and magic of nature and humanity, spending 15 years living in Thailand, Bali, Singapore and traveling further to Burma, Vietnam, China and elsewhere. The mysteries Mark encountered inform his enigmatic compositions in subtle ways. His works are visual koans where meaning is left ambiguous and open ended, inviting viewers to craft their own interpretation of what they see. Mark lives in Rhinebeck, restores historic houses, tends his garden, and creates art.

My paintings consist of elements assembled into stories or into ‘mood-scapes’. I place the recognizable into the supernatural as a way to invite a viewer to co-create a narrative from their understanding of what’s in a given composition. There is content, for sure, but it is flexible content or alternatively, it is ‘content under construction’. Why? Perhaps it’s because I want more out of a work of art than straight representation can offer. My work adjusts to mood, current events, individual personalities, and to itself. It is possible come away with a different interpretation with each viewing. Bang for buck.

There are a few things I hope to say through the oeuvre of my work; That the Earth is precious, time is precious, life is precious, that our mind is amazing, that history is way more profound than we think, and that there are mysteries lurking about which can provide insights into who we are, why we are here, and how ‘it’ all works. Graham Hancock calls us a species with amnesia. My paintings both acknowledge and challenge that: We are finding what we forgot – awakening and reconstructing our past – but we might want to hurry.

I hope my work pleases my audience. I hope they play with it, enjoy the quirks, the color, the content… and find it satisfying.

[*Please note: GPS lists it as “White Wall Dr.”]