Chad Mars - the beauty of struggle
„Art is a struggle. Just like the flowers of spring that burst forth from a hardened winter soil to see life and give life to a world around them.“ - Find it in Fondren
Chad Mars is a contemporary artist from Jackson, Missisippi. Mars is known as an artist who invented a unique technique of painting - naimly, painting with a palette of knives. As a child he had other dreams. He dreamt of studying marine biology and chasing whales around the ocean, just like his idol Moby Dick. But, eventually he chose a different path - he chose art. „Being an artist was meant to be“, he says, even though the life of an artist was a life full of struggle for him. After finishing Academy, he started working at random jobs just because he didn´t believe he could make a living as an artist. In 2005, he moved to Los Angeles to chase film school, „I had great movies in my head, but I was bad at actually making them.“, he said. He then finally decided to move back to his hometown Jackson, and pursue a career as a professional full-time artist. The first painting he painted after moving back to Jackson changed him as an artist and he soon realized that painting using traditional painting tools, such as brushes didn´t really fit the type of art he wanted to do. He ditched the brushes and started using knives. This is how a completely new technique emerged - a technique unique to him. "He pushes the layers of paint together with his knives to allow the composition to evolve on the surface." writes Brown Fine Art.
Struggle is in every piece of his art. It oozes from every stroke he makes because struggle has been a great part of his life and that is ultimately the message he is trying to convey. "I try to leave traces of the struggle. That struggle is the subject matter. I like seeing art that looks like it took some difficulty and work to arrive at." His biggest inspiration, his brother Charlie Mars, is also an artist - a musician, who also struggled to make a living with his art (music). "It´s hard", says Chad, "but, it is something you have to do."
In his current work, he´s trying to get rid of another fear, naimly the fear of pre-planning the painting. He is working on a new method of applying paint on the canvas without being cautious, carefull or meticulous. It´s like the paint is "thrown on in a chaos".
I really enjoy Chad´s paintings. Chad uses mostly bright colors in his paintings, such as pink, red, yellow and blue. Even though "struggle" is what he is all about, colorful paintings suggest happiness, beauty and fun. So, could we claim that Chad´s art is actually about the beauty of a struggle? The aesthetics of ugliness? But...is struggle something ugly at all? I don´t think so. Struggle is what makes us strong and keeps us morally fit and on the right track. And it is especially rewarding if we struggle to achieve something we are really passionate about - and succeed! Just like Chad :) That´s what makes the struggle beautiful. What do you think? :) Is that what Chad is trying to tell us? Let me know in the comments below!
To find out more about him visit his official website www.chadmars.com
Or visit his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chadmarsart
References: Find it in Fondren, Browns Fine Art, ChadMars.com
