“the eye licks it all up instantaneously, and the brain, agreeably titillated, settles down to watch things happening without bestirring itself to think,” -Virginia Woolf, 1926

Appeal t’Reason

For over a year now, I have willingly exposed myself to the daily, continuous newsfeed that is pushed through our headlines, pod-casts and sound bites. While consuming this all-media diet, I have been making watercolor paintings of: dystopic novel covers, individuals who have betrayed the military (after being trained by the military,) rich political donors and other persons of interest within the current political sphere. I have simultaneously developed a system of collecting, organizing and printing text that utilizes phrases under 25 characters.  

These text-works form the back-drop for the paintings. Amidst the noise, I question how one can observe, communicate, and reflect streams of information.


Immersed in these practices, I am increasingly anxious about my interdependence on technological devices and concerned about how these technologies impact my perception and consciousness.

“Annihilating time and space” is what most new technologies aspire to do: technology regards the very terms of our bodily existence as burdensome. Annihilating time and space most directly means accelerating communications and transportation…. new communications, reproduction, and transportation technologies only continue the process. What distinguishes a technological world is that the terms of nature are obscured; one need not live quite in the present or the local.  The devices for such annihilation (are) poured forth faster and faster, as though inventiveness and impatience had sped and multiplied too.” -Rebecca Solnit, 2013

Mark Stockton is an artist who lives and works in Philadelphia. His drawings have been shown both nationally and internationally, with exhibitions in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Beijing. Originally from the West Coast, he received his BFA from Oregon State University in 1996 and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from Syracuse University in 2000. He currently teaches design and drawing at Drexel University. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife- Cindy, his two kids- Otto and Iona and his dog- Elsie.