Rootless

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2012-03-26T20:58:35-07:00

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I owe it to earth's pure death the will to sprout anatomy of a drawing

2010-11-28T10:00:51-08:00

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what does minus mean?

2008-11-12T20:15:25-08:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

Available

how admirable to see lightning and not think life is fleeting

2008-05-22T21:18:37-07:00

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Ink on paper
8" x 20"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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where aloneness exaggerates everything

2008-05-22T21:16:51-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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things eternal want to join us

2008-05-22T21:14:48-07:00

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Ink on paper
16" x 12"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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at least no one can blame me

2008-04-26T23:44:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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nothing gives offense

2008-04-26T11:09:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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we became people who blink harder in sunlight

2008-04-15T16:22:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
9" x 12"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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there is not one moment without longing

2008-04-15T16:19:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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nothing to do with sea or anything else

2008-04-15T16:06:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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cross an endless bridge

2008-04-15T15:53:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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spring was so annoying

2008-04-15T14:14:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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nothing in the world is strange today

2008-04-15T13:57:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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everything ends in leaves

2008-04-15T13:49:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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how intimate now the cloudy sky

2008-04-15T11:31:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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a story without corners

2008-04-15T11:20:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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the rain which no one remembers falling

2008-04-15T09:49:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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nothing from yesterday that can't be redeemed

2008-04-15T07:13:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
©2007 • Marco Flavio Marinucci

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full of something missing

2008-04-15T07:06:00-07:00

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Ink on paper
12" x 16"
Â©2007 â¢ Marco Flavio Marinucci

Available

About my work

2006-12-25T07:06:00-08:00

Rootless

Nothing is as motionless as it appears. Even trees that we imagine are steadfast are constantly on the move, branching upward and outward according to a Fibonacci sequence of spiraling, increasing numbers, building drama slowly but inexorably like refrains in poetry. Then there's the unexpected twist, when trees do something to make you pay attention and notice who they are. A branch bends, a bud emerges, two leaves cling, a stump exposes itself: In that moment a tree breaks apart from the scenery, and becomes independent of its context. It could be in a garden or a Safeway parking lot, and still be pursuing its own invisible agenda. We may decide where to place trees, but they decide the rest.

Noticing trees, reading poetry, and drawing have all been part of my practice in making woodblock portraits. But in carving images of fellow immigrants into wood, I came to appreciate how wood and trees themselves have their own sense of movement to express. There are stirring passages of emptiness, straight lines that suddenly knot or kink. Most of the fragments seen in these Rootless works are samples of trees that now live in the city, but were transplanted from someplace else. In this case, the city is San Francisco, and the trees mainly originate in rural Australia -- they are more worldly than they seem.

These tree samples are not scientific specimens, but refrains that reverberate and catch in the back of the throat like a line of a song. Each tree seems to demand its own poetry, so it's been paired with a line that resonates accordingly, that repeats and increases the moment like a Fibonacci number. The line chosen seems as intimately familiar as a tree branch, even when its origins are elsewhere, in Chile, Japan, Poland, China, or Germany (Neruda, Takahashi, Szymborska, Li Po, Rilke). Even out of context, words and nature make their own sense. In the end, a tree's life cycle is not so different from a cycle of poetry: we can only take in so much at once before it overwhelms us.

Resumé

2006-12-20T11:39:00-08:00

Selected Exhibitions:

12/2007 I.O.U. -- MISSION 17's Fourth Annual Juried Exhibition
Juried by: Clark Buckner (MISSION 17), Jeannene Przyblyski (San Francisco Art Institute), Elaine Santos (MISSION 17), and Meg Shiffler (San Francisco Arts Commission)

10/2007 Galleria Italarte, Rome, Italy
“Il vento scrive: Printmakers from Dore' to
De Chirico and beyond" group show

12/2004 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA:
Artist-In-Residence

7-8/2004 Oasi di Sosta, Rome, Italy
“At Home Far Away” solo show

1-2/2004 W. Keith and J. Kellog Gallery, CA
State Polyechnic, Pomona, CA “Ink & Clay 30”
Juried by Hollis Goodall, Assoc. Curator of Japanese Art,
LACMA, Los Angeles, CA

3-4/2004 SF Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
“Bay Area Printmakers” juried show

7-8/2003 SF Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
"Crosscuts" solo show

5/2003 Los Angeles Printmaking Society,
Los Angeles, CA
"Juried Members Exhibition"

4-5/2003 The Boston Printmakers, Boston, MA
"National Prize Show"
Juried by Marc Pachter, Director,
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

2-4/2003 Museo ItaloAmericano, San Francisco, CA
"Crosscuts/Tagli Trasversali" solo show

2-4/2003 Kala, Berkeley, CA
"Cuts: The Contemporary Woodcut"

2-4/2003 The Boston Printmakers, Boston, MA
"2003 North American Print Biennial"
Juried by Clifford S. Ackley,
Curator of Prints and Drawings,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

10/2002 San Francisco Open Studios

10/2002 University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI
"Pacific States Biennial Print Exhibition"

8/2002 66balmy, San Francisco, CA
"Healing Political Divides"

8/2002 Palo Alto Art League, Palo Alto, CA
"Pacific Prints 2002"
Juried by Carolyn Peter, Assistant Curator
for the Grunwald Center for
the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum, LA

8/2002 Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, DC
"Washington Printmakers National
Small Works Exhibition"
Juried by Joann Moser, Senior Curator
of Graphic Art, Smithsonian Museum,
Washington, DC

8/2002 David Young Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
"The Magic of the Woodblock Print"

8/2002 John and Betty Grey Gallery, Portland, OR
"Baren Woodblock Printmaking Exhibition"

8/2002 Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC "6th Annual Georgetown International Fine Art Competition"
Juried by Stacy Schmidt, Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art,
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

7/2002 Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco, CA
"The Ritual of Coffee"

10/2001 California Society of Printmakers,
Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
"The Spirit of Handmade Prints"

7-12/2001 Commissioned portrait,
woodblock printmaking demonstrations and docent lectures to accompany the show:
"Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age:
Woodblock Prints from the Meiji Era"
Presidio Trust Fine Arts Foundation,
San Francisco, CA

6/2001 Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, DC
"Washington Printmakers National Small Works Exhibition"

5/2001 Commissioned portrait of Isabel Allende for 7x7 Magazine

2/2001 Crucible Steel Gallery@Cellspace,
San Francisco, CA
'“Somebody's been in my house" exhibition

2-4/2001 The Boston Printmakers, Boston, MA
"North American Print Exhibition"

10/2000 Los Angeles Printmaking Society,
Los Angeles, CA
"Impressions 2000"

7/2000 Featured Artist, "About Face" exhibition,
NextMonet

6/2000 Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, DC
"Mid-Atlantic Small Print Exhibition"

3/2000 Rizzoli Gallery, San Francisco, CA
"At Home Far Away" solo show

3/2000 California College of Arts and Crafts
Institution Gallery, San Francisco, CA
"People As Material"

6-7/1999 Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco, CA
"At Home Far Away" solo show

4/1998 Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
"National Prize Show"

1/1998 Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain
"Fifth Annual New York Digital Salon"

11-12/1997 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
"Fifth Annual New York Digital Salon"

7-8/1997 Nicolet College L.R.C. Gallery, Rhinelander, WY
"Northern National Juried Art Competition",

7-8/1997 The Stage Gallery, Merrick, NY
"Of This Earth"

6/1997 Artlink, Fort Wayne, IN
"17th Annual National Print Exhibition"

3/1997 ERB Memorial Union Gallery, Eugene, OR

2/1997 Eastern Washington Univ., Spokane, WA
"10th Annual Computer Graphic Invitational"

2/1997 IAC Contemporary Art/Fisher Gallery
Regional SIGGRAPH, Albuquerque, NM

1996-97 Fractal Design Art Show

1993-1994 Group Exhibits at the
Centro Culturale Quercia
Rome, Italy

6-8/1992 Galleria Forum Interart and
Centro Culturale Mouseion
Rome, Italy

Selected Japanese-method Woodblock Printmaking Lectures and Demonstrations:

7/2007 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
“From Meiji to Manga” lecture

9/2003 Academy of Arts College, San Francisco, CA
Woodblock printmaking lectures and demonstrations

5/2003 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Woodblock printmaking demonstrations

4/2003 Asian Art Museum,
Monsoon Society members
Private tour of my “Crosscuts” exhibit

2-4/2003 Museo ItaloAmericano, San Francisco, CA
“From Meiji to Manga” lecture and demonstrations

3/8/2003 California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA
Lecture and demonstration

7-12/2001 Presidio Trust Fine Arts Foundation
San Francisco, CA
Lectures and demonstrations during
“Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Woodblock Prints from the Meiji Era”

Articles, Awards and Affiliations:

4/2003 "Outstanding Print Award"
The Boston Printmakers "National Prize Show"
from juror Marc Pachter, Director, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

8/2002 The California Printmaker magazine
"At Home Far Away" feature

1/2002 printshow; Italian printmaking magazine, profile:
"An italian in San Francisco and Japanese Woodblock printmaking"

12/10/2001 San Francisco Chronicle profile
"Art from hands, wood and color"

6/2001 California Society of Printmakers inductee

9/2000 Los Angeles Printmaking Society inductee
Los Angeles, CA

1/2-9/2000 NextMonet Featured Artist

12/1997 Featured in the special December issue of Leonardo about the
"Fifth Annual New York Digital Salon", MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

3/1997 Toray Corp. 1st Digital Art Competition, Kobe, Japan Honorable Mention Award

Selected Collections:

Private collection of Isabel Allende, San Rafael, CA

Private collections in New York, NY, Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA, USA;

Madras, India; La Orotava, Canary Islands, Edinburgh, Scotland and Rome, Italy

Education:

10-11/2005 Residency with woodblock printmaker
David Bull in Tokyo, Japan

2000 Woodblock printmaking seminar with
David Bull, Tokyo, Japan

1999-2000-01 Woodblock printmaking seminar with Graham Scholes, Victoria, Canada

1998 Woodblock printmaking classes with Tomoko Murakami, San Francisco, CA

1990-92 Coursework at the School of Visual Arts under Bert Monroy, and at the Pratt Institute; New York, NY

1989-90 Coursework at the Academy of Fine Arts and the European Institute of Design in Rome, Italy

1989 Graduated from the
III Liceo Artistico of Rome, Italy;
selected for apprenticeship with
Gianluigi Mattia and Gianpaolo Ercolani
in traditional media; Rome, Italy