ELLYN WEISS


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Mark Planisek
June 24, 2009

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Mark and his boxes in Virginia magazine
I want to pay tribute to Mark Planisek, a DC artist who died yesterday. Mark was hit by a car while on his way home from the opening of a show of work by his collective, Sparkplug, at the Arlington Arts Center. Mark was one of the 30 or so artists, including me, who had studio space in the late lamented Millennium Arts Center in DC, where I came to know and love him.
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The late-lamented Millennium Art Center
 At times like this, one tends to revert to cliché, but everyone lucky enough to know Mark knows how true this is: in addition to being talented and hard-working, he was a thoroughly decent, kind, generous, genuine and sweet sweet guy. He made everyone smile and a day was always better for his presence. He supported his friends, came to each of our openings and was a strong presence in our community. He loved working with Sparkplug and inspired many younger friends.
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one of his political photo-collages
ImageMark was an artist with broad interests, but most of his work had photography at its base. In the past several years, he had much success with his photographic boxes. He started making these during our fight to stave off eviction from our studios at MAC, photographing our individual studios as well as most corners of the huge shambling old building, in and out, documenting the ecology of the artists’ colony at the Millennium Art Center at the edge of extinction. He gave me a box of my studio that hangs in my new studio and now I have two things to cry about whenever I look at it.
 
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© 2012 ELLYN WEISS