Transrealism:
THE ART OF MARK MULLEIAN
“Familiar
objects in unfamiliar context,” “ dreamlike visions with real massage,” “the
juxtaposition of reality without distortion,’ are attempts to describe the work
of thirty-three old San Francisco artist, G. Mark Mulleian. His style, in one
word is transrealism. Unique subject usage creates powerful impact and offers
involving, out-of- the-ordinary experiences in the visual and emotional realms
of contemporary art appreciation. Mulleian images capture one’s imagination
with dept in feeling the sentimental, profound message, crystallized energy,
spiritual warmth, power of concept, and abstract elemental awareness.
How
did such an unique ability begin, develop and find its course divergent to art
trends of our times? Perhaps being orphaned at age three and not “fitting in”
to elementary school routines and typical childhood interests were basic conditions
for seeing and responding to his environment differently than others. Mulleian’s
inner comfort and self-image were primarily nourished during these years through
visual expression. Experiences, dreams, and his subconscious mind incessantly
moved his hand and created images of realities in a strange spiritually inspired
world. Frequent visits to museums and studies from books on the Masters were
the major sources of art education for this self-taught painter. Rembrant, Michelangelo,
Da Vinchi, Caravaggio, Harnett and Dali have greatly influenced his inspiration.
Confusions in the negative spaces of reality and futility in superficiality
compared to the positivity in realization of the self have been the stimuli
for the creation of Mulleian expositions.
Mulleian’s
great complexity of texture, color, lighting, illusion, form, and energy are
responsible for some of the most profound achievements in art today. Underpainting,
layers of pigments and glazes, a technique of the Masters, permits light to
enter the painting and causes illumination from within, thus, color brilliance
and three dimensional qualities.
In
1969, Mulleian was discovered by Leonard Roy Frank, noted writer, editor, and
former promoter of sculptor Benjamino Bufano.This began his public exposure
and “controversial” became a keyword in describing Mulleian art. He has received
impressive recognition from major publications in the U.S., Germany, and New
Zealand. World known connoisseur of the arts, Tullah Hanley, in a recent visit
to the Visual Experience Gallery in San Francisco, compared Mulleian’s technique
to the Masters’ and praised his work as the best she had seen in a long time.
His audiences and buyers have been widespread throughout the United States,
Canada, Mexico, parts of Europe, and Australia. A rapidly increasing list of
several hundred collectors includes rock star Elton John, Attorney Kenneth Arnold,
columnist Herb Caen, and noted psychiatrist Thomas S. Szasz.
The
Death of Hephaestion, a recent, most intricate, pen and ink portrays
Alexander the Great holding his close companion who died just seconds before.
The first impact of great loss is dramatically captured on Alexander’s face
with eyes expressing shock, disbelief, despair, and helplessness.
Cradle
of Knowledge, an outstanding six feet by four feet oil, demonstrates
the unique Mulleian perception of subject. A trunk, the remains of a old tree
that grew through the middle of a cradle, is uprooted and suspended in a cosmos.
A-B-C blocks are embedded in the root entangled clump of earth. Emanating from
deep within the trunk a scorching burst of light bears its origin, a luminous
capital, “I”.
The
Royal Ace, a recently completed oil, brings forth an artist’s
statement regarding nuclear energy. A plush burgundy velvet pillow hovers above
a depthless sea. A chunk of pitchblende, uranium ore, is suspended above the
pillow. The ghost of a playing card, the ace of spades, transparently appears
across the face of the rock. The distant horizon is engulfed in energy: an expanding
and rising mushroom explosion. Mulleian’s colors and lighting dramatically project
of insecurity in man’s venture with the atom.
Mulleian’s
concepts and images are often expressed in writing prior to canvas, or as a
final statement of his unusual realistic yet abstract awareness of ideology
combined with self-created thought. Some defiance of conforming to the “proper”
use of the English language may be evident, but useful for the satisfaction
of feeling, the ultimate goal, as his poem “Blacker than Black“
illustrates here.
Moccasins,
less abstract and conceptual than “Blacker than Black”, creates a visual image
recently interpreted in oil. The artist writes,
Vietnam,
1968, was responsible for a near disaster, but inspiring experience. Mulleian
and fifteen others were huddled in a dilapidated bunker. Under attack during
the tet offensive. A rocket exploded through the roof of the bunker. Miraculously,
no one was killed or even injured. Earlier, the day, Mulleian had a premonition
of the incident and lived in terror until twelve hours later when it happened.
As the rubble from the explosion cleared, Mulleian gazed up through the hole
in the bunker roof and saw a solitary star. Inspiration, faith, belief, or whatever
comes to one in situation such as this is reflected through the following poem,
“Death of a Battlefield”.
Dry
burning moccasins do I feel beneath my feet, and a wind of rushing sand and
eyes that can not see. Sunbeams stand tall beside me like bright organ pipes
of gold, only to play upon its music sheet of sandy sea. Dry burning moccasins
do I leave behind, with notes of dry winds, and sunbeam’s play across the desert
floor, till I am no more.
Curdling
cold is this place of vanishing souls in fright. As they blanket the air of
day like locust to the dead of night. Beneath the breath of stillness of death
deep deep inside, is the slowing heartbeat and a single soldier’s cry. Curdling
cold is the air of vanishing souls in fright, in these days of forbidden nights.
Is the death of a battlefield because of a single soldie’s cry.
Eleven
years after his first public exposure Mark Mulleian’s imagination and inspiration
continue to stimulate or challenge, sometimes disturb, but invariably captivate
viewers with visual drama and technical excellence. San Francisco, in a cottage
near the ocean, is where this dedicated artist works toward his major goal to
share his creative efforts with as many people as possible. Mark Mulleian is
a humble, sensitive individual with great depth and strength of purpose. Art
is his life, creating is his happiness and basically all he’s ever known-he
knows it well.
Blacker
than black lies cracked, upon the slab of solid sight, forbidden to see lies
deep and black like ebony, eternal swallowed and dies in the pupil of an eye.
The Computer Learning Center in San Francisco, and lead instructor at AT&T Professional
Development Center, also in San Francisco. By 1996 he had become a proactive
consultant and end-user software trainer. With this knowledge in computer programming
Arbegast would eventually design and build this website, www.mulleian.com, in
dedication of Mulleian's paintings in 1997, that they could be seen and shared
throughout the world.
In
1974, Robert Arbegast left Princeton and came to San Francisco to be part of
burgeoning movement of a free-thinking generation in quest of new ideas which
left him with an indelible transcending experience into deeper insights and
creative energies, opening him up to the world of art. Mr.
Arbegast first became aware of Mulleian's paintings through a friend who brought
him to the exhibit at the Frank Gallery where, by chance, he was introduced,
in
1974, to the artist in person. Later he would eventually meet Mulleian once
again in 1976. Mr. Arbegast, in his devotion to the artist and his work, became
instrumental in promoting Mulleians art by writing several magazine and newspaper
articles on the artist which were published during the late 1970's and well
into the 1980's. From 1984 to 1991 Mr. Arbegast was a lead trainer in
IBM mainframe programming and operations trainees at
