Mark Swanson’s enchanting art glows with brilliant color, graceful shapes, and beaming optimism all set in a world of lush tropical splendor.
In his work you will find mankind and nature engaged in a blissful, sustained harmony; each caring for, appreciating, and nourishing the other. A recurring theme of hope for today and tomorrow runs like a stream through all his art.
His artistic vision was shaped during the days when “Good Vibrations” and “Sgt. Pepper” were wafting down the beach from a new 67’ mustang convertible. And Southern California was a breezy Polynesian and space age inspired wonderland. For Swanson his work is not nostalgic but an unbroken continuation of art and vision begun when the world was a little more carefree and innocent.
Swanson’s grandfather, an artist and sign painter, was quick to note and cultivate the inherent talent his grandson showed at an early age. He showered the boy with every tool and art material available and built him a detailed miniaturized version of his own drawing table. He taught the budding artist how to draw, use a brush and the basics of color. Swanson’s grandfather passed on to him a great love of art, a deep respect for those who came before and a passion to carry the torch of art into a new generation.
Swanson’s father, a mechanical engineer in the 60’s space program introduced him to the tools, ideas, and technologies of the space age. It was through his father’s drawings, done by hand on vellum and paper, that Swanson gained a love of precision and elegance. To the boy these drawings were powerful magic, filled with fascinating though incomprehensible symbols.
During those heady days, fantastic dreams routinely became reality. Optimism was the coin of the era. Artists, designers and businessmen alike appealed to the imagination; for if a man could walk on the moon there was no limit to what might be achieved.
During High school Swanson and his parents moved to Northern California. There he spent his early professional years painting record covers, concert posters and making animated TV commercials. He also made a number of short experimental animated films.
In the early eighties Swanson started to work with crude computer programs mixing his hand drawn art with technology making some of the first computer animated commercials seen in Northern California.
In the mid eighties Swanson was hired to draw the layouts, or backgrounds, for Steven Spielberg’s “An American Tale” and then for Spielberg and Lucas’s “Land Before Time”.
During this time the studio moved to Dublin Ireland. There Swanson pioneered the use of computers for use in hand drawn feature animation and became the Director of Computer Animation for the studio’s next animated features, “All Dogs Go to Heaven” and “Rock-A-Doodle”. Returning to California Swanson started his own studio working on feature animation and live action films with companies such as Hanna-Barbera, Turner Films, MGM, and Disney.
During his many happy successful years in animation Swanson continued to develop the art he had started as a young man. Five years ago he moved to Hawaii to be close to his family in Haleiwa and dedicate himself to the work he loves best, drawing and painting the joyful imagery of a hopeful happy world.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace".
Jimi Hendrex