Ciara McNamara, Artist Programs intern at TAC, got together with current AIR 16 resident Mark Fleuridor:
Ciara: Hi Mark. Thanks for coming in to meet me today, I am really looking forward to chatting. Could you start off just by talking a little about yourself and your artwork? What your practice looks like and what your art is about conceptually?
Mark: Hi Ciara. I am Mark Fleuridor. I make art about memories and different things that interest me; my family, mangoes, or anything I can tell a story with. I use varying mediums such as textiles like quilting, sewing, collage, paper and ink.
Ciara: You have spoken about the importance of dissecting your past experiences through your artwork, why is this important in your process of creating work?
Mark: Throughout my years of making art, my work as it began was about my family since that was the closest thing to me at the time. They are still very close to me. But I think at this point, my art is more about storytelling. Strong stories that are important to me as well as the smaller moments in life.
Ciara: What draws you to storytelling?
Mark: Music is a large part of it, since music tells all kinds of stories. Recently, I have been listening to a lot of music that tells stories and I would like my art to be a similar experience. Although, when I start making artwork, I don’t really know what I am going to make until I make it.
Ciara: So your work is pretty process driven it sounds like?
Mark: Yeah, definitely. After I create an artwork I look at it for a long time, I reflect on how it makes me feel. The process tells its own story.
Ciara: You brought up music a moment ago so I want to ask if you listen to music while you are making your art?
Mark: Yes, I listen to music all the time. I can’t listen to podcasts or audiobooks, it is too distracting. I really enjoy listening to hip hop or jazz. Miles Davis, or Navy Blue, my current favorite rapper.
Ciara: I know you received a BFA in painting, but your work is primarily textile-based, how did you first discover textiles and what led you to using textiles as your primary medium?
Mark: Thank you for the question. My path in making art has always centered around collaging, so even back in highschool I was very interested in collaging and painting. I went to the Maryland Institute of Art, or MICA, and studied painting there. While I was there, I went through an artist-block phase in my painting of really not knowing, or feeling too interested in painting. It was at that point that I started taking classes in different majors. I took a textile class that was an introduction to fiber art. While taking that class I also joined the quilting club. I am not sure if they still do this, but when I was at school the quilting club collaborated with African American Quilters of Baltimore. They would collaborate with students to make a collective quilt, and sell it to raise money for scholarships. I got to learn a lot and bring my current techniques back into my practice. [Link to AAQB Website]
Ciara: That’s great. And why would you say you enjoy collaging?
Mark: I really like using something that already exists and seeing how I can transform it into something new.
Ciara: What is the process of your collages? Do you cut fabric and figure it out as you go? Or do you source imagery from external references?
Mark: I have a film photography practice. I photograph images throughout the years and develop them into photo albums. I scan the photos and digitally manipulate them. I print the works on fabric then paint and quilts on them.
Ciara: Did you take many photos since you were just in Miami, where you are from.
Mark: Yes! Here is an example of one digital collage. [Mark shows me each layer that has been overlapped to then be digitally scanned onto the fabric that will turn into one of his quilts.]
Ciara: How many different layers are there, it looks like many. Five? Ten?
Mark: This one has actually the fewest layers I think, the maximum I have gotten to I think is 50 different layers. I do a ton of digital cataloging. The quilting aspect is when I draw and outline aspects to the digital collage I have done. There is this book called, Notes From the Woodshed (2018), by the artist Jack Whitten, where he writes about his ideas around wanting to make the best work, and I ended up adopting a lot of his ways of thinking in that book.
Ciara: How do you think your work has evolved through your medium?
Mark: The medium of textiles itself is very forgiving to me, I feel like I can remove and re-sew different threads. I can replace things and add things on top of other things. That aspect of making is very alluring to me.
I also make works on paper. I took a four year break from making textile work, and recently began again in 2023. After taking the break from textiles, I began experimenting with works on paper more, using archival glue to draw with. I ended up accidentally forming a different style, more abstract than the figurative quilts.
There are figures in the paper works, but they are more abstracted, in fragments scattered around the piece. [Mark pulls up one of his paper artworks to show me.] So this work is a mango tree, but it is actually my dad at a job interview, although it is very difficult to notice this aspect. There is the nose… the mouth… [Mark points to a few of the mango leaf shapes.]
Ciara: The choice to fragment and scatter the digital collage around, camouflaging it through a new form, feels very significant.
Mark: Yeah, at this time I was making a lot of work surrounding mangoes. Growing up in Miami, my parents have always had two large mango trees. They have a lot of plants. My dad used to be a farmer and my mom grew up planting. I have many memories attached to certain plants I grew up with. For example, I remember planting a coconut tree in the backyard with my dad. I also have many memories that I tie to the mango trees.
I remember when my grandfather’s funeral was because it was the beginning of mango season. For the piece we are looking at, I titled it, Rest Before Rest, because it was before my dad had a job interview with me. I remember when I was a young kid, in kindergarten I think, my mom would make me give flowers to my teachers. I thought back to that as well which is why there are hands holding the tree as a gift.
Ciara: So much of your art is based around your childhood memories, and personal storytelling, as you have spoken about. Is the art necessarily meant to be understood by the viewer, or rather reinterpreted?
Mark: It depends on the piece. Some pieces I do find it important for people to know, but other pieces it is okay not to tell people. Part of it is that I want my art to look good, that is my main goal. I write about the pieces I would like to share the context of, but in a very low pressure way.
Sometimes only on Instagram or something like that. Then there are the pieces that I feel are too personal, so I do not want to share what they are about. Sometimes making art assumes very personal work, and I have to be careful with how much I share because it may be too personal and then I can’t take it back.
Ciara: Shifting gears a bit, you have also been an artist in residence at the Textile Arts Center for a little while now. For the first part of your time during the “play-period” was there any particular workshop or lesson that stuck out to you or that you had not tried previously?
Mark: I think my favorite workshop may have been experimenting with felting. I also really enjoyed screen printing, which I have done before but it was a nice refresher. More recently, the snow dyeing workshop we did with Kelly and Leo [Kelly Valletta, Executive Director at TAC + Leo Pontius, fellow AIR 16 artist] was very fun.
Ciara: Now, as we move into the last part of the residency (AIR) at the Textile Arts Center, residents propose projects they will spend the rest of their time creating for the final exhibition. Do you have any particular ideas you are thinking about that you would like to share?
Mark: I am definitely interested in making a quilt. I am thinking I will incorporate silk painting as well.
Ciara: Very nice! Thank you for meeting with me today Mark, I am looking forward to hearing more about your final project for the AIR 16 exhibition in September.
Mark Fleuridor explores personal histories through painting, quilting, collage and patternmaking. Featured exhibitions include a Solo Show at YoungArts in Miami Fl, duo booth presentation at Future Fair NY with Anna Zorina Gallery, and a group show at Crisp-Ellert Art Museum. Mark Fleuridor has completed artist residencies at institutions such as Art Omi in Ghent, NY; Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, CO; Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT; and Oolite Arts in Miami, FL. Fleuridor is a recipient of the Knight Arts Champions Award 2022 and also a recipient of the Oolite Arts Ellies Award 2020 for his Public Art project “Being Held”. Fleuridor was also a visiting lecturer at multiple institutions including Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), and Museum of Contemporary Arts (MOCA) North Miami. Fleuridor holds a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
About the AIR program:
TAC AIR combines studio access with a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, and regular critical dialogue, providing residents an opportunity to learn and explore the textile medium, and an alternative to traditional higher education programs. The residency culminates in a group exhibition produced and hosted by TAC. Since 2010, TAC AIR has graduated over 100 artists and designers whose work continues to further textile art within the fashion, fine arts, design and art education fields.