Mark Wagner is a California artist, born in Pennsylvania, whose work is largely inspired by Native American Indian lore. A richer lore would be hard to find. His philosophy - "I demand more than sight to see. I believe that art is sacred and inseparable from life" - could be a rallying cry from artists everywhere. As a result of his association with the native people of South Dakota, he learned to look beyond his eyes, but it was in New Mexico that his work "became focused on the direct connection between nature, spirit, and the human race."

He has translated these insights into multi-layered images built up from exquisitely sensitive drawings enhanced with abstractions suggesting legend. His firmly rooted belief in man's relationship to Nature and Earth is manifest in his latest creations, totems presented in `trees.` His continuing quest for vision and meaning is carried out in a series of small paintings of humans, birds, and symbols, his creations so urgent, so pregnant with mystery, that he cannot finish one before starting another.

Wagner's splendid sense of color, his ability to draw anything, and his fine notions of composition are best seen in his portraits of Native American Indian mythology. In these magnificent pictures, he honors and perpetuates Indian tradition and history as, I think, no other artist has ever done.

Wagner's education includes the Fine Arts program at Kutztown State University in Pennsylvania; graduation with honors from Pratt Institute, 1983; a Master's degree in "Arts and Conciousness" from John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, CA, 1991; and a course in Computer Generated Artwork at NYU. He wrote, illustrated, and hand made "The Universe Creating Itself" and "My Life As An Arrow" and contributed illustrations and covers to innumerable publications. He participated in eight exhibits in 1990 alone, ten in 1988, with multiple shows each year, starting in 1981.

by Pamela G. Bond