More from NSU!

2009-06-16T20:26:00.000-04:00

Nova Southeastern University -
Video Presentation and Reception.

Global Celebration of the Arts NSU

2009-05-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

INDIA: BETWEEN MYTH AND MEMORY
April 28th 2009

Contact Nathan Markham: oceandrums@gmail.com

Five Minutes on the Road to Madurai
Excerpt from The Travel Diaries of Nathan Markham

1. In 1999, I sat with my wife staring at Southern India from an unexpected perch: through a speeding, sweat-stained bus window. We had been traveling for days on a packed government run Temple tour for Hindu pilgrims starting and ending in Chennai, India.

2. I was considering our dawn descent in our creaky old bus from the mountain hill station Kodaikanal, in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, and the dangerous roads that were ahead. I recalled our highway accident two days before, where we collided with another bus and our driver’s rearview mirror was ripped from the bus and shattered on the pavement. We stopped only to collect the mirror – and continued on.

3. Our government bus moaned and shuttered. It was rocking in and out of danger as my window seemed to lean over the unguarded and crumbling drop-offs – I decided to focus on holding my wife’s hand and a far off waterfall careening from a steep cliff.

4. We sat immediately behind our driver. He was a religious, Hindu man, but unlike his daily forehead thumbprint of ash - his forehead this morning was completely covered in white ash, (Which, in my ignorance of his religion, I assumed meant he had said a really big prayer that morning. And after the first five minutes of our ride that day, I had hoped he did.)

5. He was surrounded by the smoke of burning incense. He had shoved it into the now disabled AC vents on his dashboard. There was a deafening screech of a morning chant playing over the loud speakers from his personal cassette deck.

6. The bus door, next to us was open to the road as we drove, and with no seatbelts on, every turn of the bus driver’s wheel was a reason to curse, and to pray. I leaned into the wind. I noticed it becoming an oven. I watched the road whizzing by, a few feet away. The more dry the air became the closer our bus came to the flat scorching desert.

7. As he drove, the driver argued with the bus luggage boy, an 11 year old, about whether or not he could play a Michael Jackson cassette during our descent. The bus was hurling around corners, missing on-coming traffic by inches. I breathed in deeply the remnants of the incense. The smoke was burning my lungs. I remember thinking this man is spiritually prepared to die today, am I? He refused to play the boy’s tape. I was finally enjoying India. I just couldn’t see flying off a mountain blaring a heart-felt rendering of, “Beat It.”

NATHAN MARKHAM - BIO

From 1999 – 2001, he backpacked with his wife around the world, collecting images, stories, and videos concerning the migration of the King family from Guyana throughout the British Colonies and Dominion. Nathan created several lengthy diaries during this time documenting his daily experiences – and also attempted to have a great time traveling.

Nathan received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting and Drawing from Savannah College of Art and Design in 1999, and is an artist and educator. He is currently showing art inspired by his writings and travels. He has recently completed his Master’s in Interdisciplinary Arts at Nova Southeastern University.

Artist Statement
Nathan Markham makes painted journeys through his past travels, confronting globalization as a loss of individual identity. In these latest works, he engages the memory and symbols of India, not as an ambassador, but as a catalyst for collected and eroding content.

Through the combination of staining and resisting pigments, he
re-contextualizes each layer of his travels. His past understanding informs his unwilling future, and like memory, partly controls the final outcome. His paintings pass through many genres of technique, saving and destroying valuable ideas that are sometimes forever obscured in the past layer. Markham mimics time, as he erodes his depiction of memory and the mythology of his travels. Narratives arise of robberies, illnesses, celebrations and near death experiences.

Markham’s approach to picture making is layered, arrested,
and pragmatic. His paintings are his journey through personal mythology, destroyed memories, and visceral technique.

India: Places I've been, But can never go again..

2008-11-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

Double-sided, Unprimed, Waterbased media.
India Series: Sides A & B
#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

#5.

New Works in Progress! 2008

2008-09-06T12:21:00.000-04:00

Contact NMarkham: oceandrums@gmail.com

These are 9 in a series of 12 on liquid structure.

Mixed Media
30" x 30"

Mixed Media
24" x 30"

Mixed Media
16" x 20"

MixedMedia
24" x 30"

At Artformz Alt. Miami Exposed!

2008-08-09T01:46:00.000-04:00

Navigate entries using the blog archive on the right hand side.
Juried Exhibition , sponsored by the city of Miami and Artformz to expose the 20 best independent South Florida artists during the Art Fairs 2007. The show was the launch site of the new international arts magazine, irreversible, and was covered by several other international arts outlets.

The Artformz Gallery front.

Three paintings .

New Paintings.

2008-08-09T00:32:00.000-04:00

Acrylic, Graphite, Charcoal, Liquid Pigment on Canvas. (2007)
Click on picture to enlarge detail.
Contact NMarkham at
oceandrums@gmail.com

1. Evidence 26" x 26"

2. Proof 23" x 30"

3. Metaphor 24" x 30"

4. De Void 11" x 14"

5. Luster 9" x 11"

6. Mass 9" x 11"

7. Risk 14"x 18"

8. Tendencies 20" x 16"

9. Clearly 20" x 16"

10. Ambiguous 11" x 13"

11. Mind Studio 20" x 16"

Sketches, Drawings, Photos

2008-08-08T13:55:00.000-04:00

New Collage Drawings - 24" x 28"

2008-05-20T21:24:00.000-04:00

Full and in Detail:
Mixed Media on paper
Random Vintage Magazines Circa 1969 - 83