- Artist:
- Mark Preston
- Edition Size:
- 85 signed and numbered, 8 artist's proofs, 8 remarques, 2 printer's proofs
- Paper Size:
- 25.5 x 89 cm, 10 x 35 inches
- Image Size:
- 20.5 x 84 cm, 8 x 33 inches
- Publication Year:
- 2013
Starry, Starry Night reflects the essence of the past, but attempts to relate it to the here and now.
According to Mark Preston, "the button blanket was a form of expressing the clan symbols of the person wearing it. The button blanket told a story about the family through images that everyone in the community understood." Mark adds that "over the course of several years of abstracting Northwest coast art forms, I have focused primarily on the button blanket as a theme to illustrate the idea of adapting traditional materials to more contemporary ones. In a world of changing ideals, the concept of traditional values also transforms its meaning and adapts to the new host society. This serigraph is the abstract representation of all that is good in the city and all that is a natural wonder to my creative side."
Mark hopes to impress upon the viewer that as an artist of mixed heritage, he feels the need to express his appreciation for his culture of the past, while he attempts to see the world that surrounds him in new ways.
This limited edition silk screen print titled "Starry, Starry Night" by Mark Preston was hand produced by the screen printing process. It is the only limited edition printing of this design. The artist has inspected and signed each copy in the edition. The printer has destroyed all trial copies and obliterated the printing stencils.
Mark Preston (Tenna-Tsa-Teh) was an Aboriginal artist from Dawson City, Yukon. He was of Tlingit and Irish ancestry.
Mark was born in March 1960 in Dawson City, Yukon. He passed away in October 2022 after a long battle with cancer.
Mark learned about his Tlingit ancestry through family and school study. Initially, he began studying art through European masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, but later discovered Northwest Coast Native artists such as Bill Reid, Robert Davidson and Roy Vickers.
He cites Mark Rothko and Jack Bush as influences in his more recent aboriginal paintings and artworks which transcend the traditional Tlingit Native art form and move him closer into the abstract and contemporary realm.
Mark studied various mediums in paper, cloth, wood, metals, stone and glass. He studied silver carving with well-known master jeweler and carver Phil Janze (Gitskan Nation) at Hazelton, BC.
“When I think about what art is, it is more than illustration or objects to be doted over. Art is the magic, the glue that binds us all together. It is the language that transcends its forms.”
Mark Preston worked in prints, jewellery, furniture and architecture, blending modern art with his Indigenous culture. His ideas were always changing, new, and innovative. He was a visionary who was continuously looking for new ways to express his creativity.