True Markham
True Markham’s images stretch beyond the rational. Using large canvases and intense colors, Markham allows his paintings to emerge spontaneously through intuitive drawing and the material plasticity of paint. His work reflects a belief that everyone shares a longing for something deeper; a yearning for hidden dimensions beyond everyday experience. Markham's paintings make a case for our collective fascination with the magical, strange, and unseen. Based in Chicago, Markham received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and exhibits both locally and abroad.
Collect Bean: How do you think your work has evolved?
True Markham: When I first started painting, I was much more interested in making statements. In critique, folks would bring up the word “illustrative,” which can be kind of a dirty word in academic painting circles. I wanted my paintings to speak about specific things and trigger specific emotions. The longer I paint, the more I lean towards not providing clean answers. I’m learning to be more comfortable with letting the painting speak for itself.
Collect Bean: What does growth mean to you?
True Markham: I don’t think growth as an artist has to mean improvement. Growth, for me, has meant freedom, learning to trust my hand and my head, slackening my grip on controlling the outcome of a painting, and knowing when to call something finished or destroy something that’s only pretty good. I think growth is anything that leads you to keep pushing the practice forward and making more interesting work.
Collect Bean: Where are you currently finding inspiration?
True Markham: I read and watch a lot of science fiction. I love the sense of familiarity coupled with strangeness—a society that looks like ours with some key differences or exotic exceptions to the customs and rules of our world. Making a painting that has that same sense of familiarity and strangeness has been a satisfying goal for me lately.
Collect Bean: How do you approach the balance between experimentation and consistency in your art?
True Markham: I’m pretty skeptical of being comfortable while I’m making things in the studio. Some of my best paintings have been made during the most unpleasant studio sessions – feelings of hopelessness and confusion that led to unexpected outcomes or breakthroughs. When I find a vein that seems rich and worthwhile, I explore it until the paintings become stale or formulaic. Trusting my gut and knowing when things are getting too comfortable leads me back into a renewed state of experimentation, which leads to a more expanded practice.
Collect Bean: How do you balance your practice with your daily life?
True Markham: A key thing for me has been to decouple value from hours spent working. Sometimes a really good painting only takes a couple of hours to make. Sometimes I’ll need to take a couple of weeks off to read or do a creative hobby to flush out the pipes. Allowing my practice the space and time it needs has been critical in balancing the demands of life with the demands of the studio. Having faith that whatever I experience in life will feed back into my practice is comforting, and taking pressure off myself to consistently produce often leads to weirder, better paintings.
