Pirate:Contemporary Art

“I have no fear of anyone, I’m dumb and wild and free” -John Darnielle
 
The Artist:
I have an Oedipus complex with television. I simultaneously want to marry TV and also kill it.
It’s what I think about in the morning when I wake up and right before my eyes close at night.
TV raised me and TV is why I make art.

In cartoons a character is nearly beaten to death and then is completely fine in the next scene. If
only the world were a place with so few consequences. Cartoon violence is both impermanent and yet it is also permanent. All these television shows depicting people like Homer Simpson being thrown from cliff sides and punching their neighbors will long outlast my earthly body in both relevance and physicality. We are all near death at any given moment, whether it is a stab to the eye or a bonk on the head, we are out like a light. There is no use wringing your hands and grinding your teeth about it, but there is use in painting it.

I treat my art practice like writing a sitcom. Each piece is a joke and combined they form an
absurd series meant to create an irreverent realism. By taking commonplace imagery and
skewing it, I make the familiar strange. I hate many things, but I hate thinking of my work as
biographical most. That being said, myself is one thing I’ve never been able to escape from. I am
a social chameleon, a mirror. I am nothing but the people and culture around me. The work I
make serves solely as cultural anthropology. I gather information about the times I’ve lived in,
the people I have known and know, the mythologies that permeate my American life, and I capitalize on their nonsensical and ironic nature. Then I contrast them with the deep-seated
emotion involved in defining self. And finally, in artist statements I like to write lofty sounding
sentences that have little to no actual meaning.

Bio:
Marcus Fingerlin was born in Aurora, Colorado, and raised in Brighton, Colorado.
Marcus Graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Colorado Mesa University where he
studied Ceramics. During college, Marcus lived at Ghost Ranch, in Abiquiu, New Mexico, for
two summers. Living in O’Keeffe’s backyard continues to inform his practice. Then Marcus
moved to Ohio and completed Kent State University’s post-baccalaureate program. Throughout his career he has focused his work around the figure and his absurd life experiences. Marcus got sick of ceramics and moved back to Colorado in 2019 to continue his multimedia practice.

Contact Info:
m.fingerlin96@gmail.com
720-256-8337