Artist Statement

My idea for this website was to arrange an online retrospective featuring one painting to accurately represent each year of a 45-year timeline. Within the 45 years, 1972-2016, I have painted frequently but not always that often and as a result my body of work is not as large as it is continuous. There were some years I focused on etchings and others where I concentrated on sculptures or drawings. At other times I was committed to writing different stories, songs, or partying. Displaying my images and mixing in the musick with other projects is the idea and the theme of this Muleseum.

It would be in this context that I knowingly broke the rules of art websites by putting everything out there in order to be able to view it in the context of a timeline. The print reproductions of the etchings, paintings, and photos are all for sale and they look great, but also another aspect of this site is for sharing and entertainment. Reviewing my timeline I can see that I was more involved in the conceptualization of ideas using paint rather than the art of painting itself. I have always had the creative freedom to shift mediums and choose my own subject matter.

Most of my paintings, etchings and especially drawings were never planned out with any structural method that would usually preclude an art piece. My idea was to keep my focus unplanned and spontaneous and to enjoy the process without knowing the result. In retrospect I do not think this method is as practical as it was enjoyable. The act of drawing an image and matching it with a concept as it develops I always found to be entertainingly rewarding. With this kind of approach sometimes the titles are better than the images. Often it seems that the hardest thing about making art is creating the free time in which to do it.

The earlier influences that played a part in the direction of my artwork were the artists Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Brueghel, as well as the Dada movement and the surrealists. Along with medieval alchemical woodcuts and engravings I liked pre-historical and antediluvian images that were made inside of caves or carved into rocks. I also admire the craftsmanship of the 17th century Dutch painters. Reading unusual books is always healthy and as time plays out it seems that yesterday’s mysteries are today’s entertainment. I tried to explore esoteric and occult teachings along with anything to do with mysticism, mythology, aliens and religion. I am relieved that in review I can see that this has had no effect on my artwork.

Thanks for taking the time to run through this site,

Artist Statement

"I think that the key to unique self-expression is the ability to make your own parameters and realities and to work just outside of those boundaries."

-Mulordano Bruno

Background

The Background

Born 1957 in Washington D.C. Martin Jenkins has spent the last 45 years, and plus, creating a variety of conceptually themed pieces utilizing art in multiple mediums. Martin studied art at George Mason University and then at the University of New Orleans where he received his BFA in 1980. From 1982 until 2009, he was an associate printmaker at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, VA just outside of Washington, D.C. He studied academic training in an Atelier class environment at the Vitruvian Fine Art Studio in Chicago from 2011 to 2016. His Muleseum gallery is now associated with Mr. Wigz Smoke Shop located at 1100 Coastal Highway in Fenwick Square, Fenwick Island, Delaware. Come by and check it out if you are in the neighborhood.

Events

He has put on many one-man art shows as well as collaborations with other artists. His images abound with phantasmagorical mythologies and esoteric fringe tongue in sheep concepts. Although he does not always practice it his philosophy is that 21st century artists should create using an open approach while exploring the many old and new techniques at their disposal.