Stem Cells Awaiting Instructions

Marc Barker has over 40 years of experience in art and over 30 years of experience teaching and producing in the field of interactive media. His art is meditation and reprieve from the world of computers. He draws inspiration equally from his backgrounds in science and art, and balances them with metaphysics and The Mystery. He was member of the Graphic Arts Union in offset lithography, studied color and painting with Bill Wallo at CSU and helped manage Paseo Intaglio Printers editioning and contract printmaking for local and national artists.

He was selected as 2004 Festival of the Arts juror for the Arts Council of Oklahoma City. He helped create the Artful Experience committee for the Arts Council of Oklahoma City and chaired that committee for its first two years, which taught principles of printmaking to festival goers through exhibits and demonstrations. He was the guest juror for the 2009 Paseo Festival of the Arts, and in 2019 for the Goddard Center 47th Annual Competition. He was the Allied Artist representing OVAC (Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition), exhibited in the State Capitol of Oklahoma’s East Gallery in 2008, had a painting chosen for the Oklahoma State Art Collection at the State Capitol.

Community workshops and classes include: class monitor for RV Goetz painting workshop, assistant to Quartz Mountain class of Douglas Kirkland, resin workshop with Janet O’Neal, à la prima figure painting classes - Leslie Lienau, figure drawing and Henry Hensche color classes - Chris Brizzard. He was staff and faculty of the University of Central Oklahoma and was instrumental in the founding of the Presentation Production Center, taught principles of interactivity and was production supervisor for the Multimedia Technology Laboratory. His interactive clients have included: Robert A. Hefner III’s (along with his wife MeiLi Hefner) GHK Companies family entities & interests: Ramiiisol Vineyards, Hefner Collection, Hefner Foundation, The Grand Energy Transition, State of Oklahoma Governor’s Office, OVAC, Allied Artists, Oklahoma League for the Blind, Raxco, Enron, AOL, Conoco, Republican National Committee, Dallas Mavericks, Delta Dental of Oklahoma.

ARTIST INSIGHTS

How are your background and life experiences connected to your art?

Anything we learn changes everything we know. I was friends with a nationally well-known family of painters in the 70s – RV Goetz and his wife Edith and along with 4 of their 6 kids who are painters, and that connection was my first encounter and led me to pursue art. I have been a caver since 1971 (exploring, surveying, photographing and creating artwork of caves). I then did graduate work in Zoology, and both caves and my reverence of nature organically continue to texture my work. I attended Theosophical classes in the 70s and that metaphysical background also helped formulate my direction in life & art, which encouraged me to pursue a career in the arts.