The wandersome, wondersome world of mark-making map artist Marc Boyson
Marc Boyson @kailinart
by Yu-Kai Lin, photos by Valentin Sivyakov
Meanderingly methodical, almost like circular crop formations in a wheat field, Marc Boyson’s art is a study of intuitive mind-mapping and measured mark-making.
Shape and form play a central role in these dynamically layered, complex artworks. From drawing to etching, outlining to lasering, silver to gold to bronze leafing, flocking and glitter to rainbow liquids, chrome and copper pens, plywood and birchwood, porcelain and glazes — Boyson uses an inexhaustible range of techniques to express these maps.
Circuitous Dérive: Two Sides to Every Story : Birch Plywood, Laser Etching, Montana Gold Acrylic Paint, Pentouch Gold Pen, Gold Leaf in a Walnut Plywood Frame 30"x 30"x 3”
Raised outlines highlight the importance of each juncture as structural definitions of the path become measuredly frenetic, then seemingly sparse. It’s as if Boyson is delineating an open field of parks or perhaps an uncharted forest.
With each dead end, a new intuitive mark begins. With every turnabout, the ending becomes a new beginning. From a topographical perspective, the viewer is invited to engage the surface of these “intuitive derive variation{s} on a circle” through intentional mark-making.
Intuitive Dérive: Saint Joseph : Vintage Maple Plywood, Laser Etching, Liquitiex ink! Iridescent Bright Gold, Molotow Liquid Chrome, Sumi-e xerograph paper, Silverleaf on Birch Plywood in a Vintage Maple Plywood Frame 19"x 25"x 2"
A road leads to a juncture - an air hanger perhaps - leading to a port into the city - a maze of wonder for the wanderer. Golden pools of light, silvered landscapes of delight, drift and ponderous respite, where one can rest. A recuperation from the journey as daybreak takes the path back into wooded fields, paved roadways, unpaved routes.
Cubo No. 002 : Porcelain, Mishima, Gold ink, Glaze, Flocking, and Gold leaf
8.5”x 8.5”x 8.5”
These defined lines were mapped by humans on the same trail centuries ago now. A step becomes a mark, a mark becomes the path, the path becomes the way, the way becomes the pilgrimage. Shared journeys traversing on a spinning spherical playground, elevated onto planked birchwood platforms for which Boyson’s artworks exists.
Stay and wander is what Boyson is seemingly saying. Meander and ponder the road less traveled. Roam our shared universe, stay the course, but be willing to modify your plans at every juncture. The road ahead is rocky, tumultuous, arduous yet paved with lanes of inspiration, delight, revelation.
