Creative Thresholds

Dear Readers,

Creative Thresholds is going to take a bit of a hiatus. We want to figure out where the blog stands now and what we would like the blog to be in the future. What is our vision going forward? How would we describe our purpose, our mission? We don’t have a date yet for when we will start back, but our guess is that it will be in the new year. Thank you all for your wonderful support! We appreciate it so very much! Please feel free to share any ideas you have with us, of course!

Best to you all!

Melissa D. Johnston
Editor/curator

We don’t have an issue coming out tomorrow, but join us for the first September issue on Thursday, September 14! It’ll be worth the wait, we promise! 

We’re going to take a break for the month of June, but we’ll be back in July with some great posts!

Due to illness, there will not be a Creative Thresholds issue today. We will be back with a wonderful issue full of art and writing in two weeks. 

Dear readers,

I’ve been struggling with many health issues recently and finally decided I needed to take some time off to try and fully recover, which includes taking time away from Creative Thresholds this month. We’ll be back next month, though, with some really amazing work by both visual artists and writers. It’ll be worth the wait. I promise. 😉

Thanks so much for your continuing support! You guys rock!

Best,

Melissa D. Johnston
Editor/Curator Creative Thresholds

Hi everyone,

We’re taking our summer vacation week a little early this year. We’ll be back on Thursday, May 26, to kick off a great summer season! See you then!

Best,

Melissa
Editor/curator

Hi all, there will be not be an issue of Creative Thresholds today due to illness. Look for us again in two weeks! 

Thanks, 

Melissa 

Curator/editor

Dear Readers,

We’re so sorry to say we won’t have an issue today due to illness, but we will be back strong January 14, 2016. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!

Best to you and yours,

Melissa D. Johnston

image by Quinn Dombrowski https://flic.kr/p/5nN7iQ

We promise we love life and you even when not on vacation. (But boy do we enjoy vacation, too!) The first August issue is rest time for Creative Thresholds this year. We’ll be back with a spectacular issue in two weeks, August 27.

by John F. Marok

The figures in my paintings have their origins from my own life. I begin with my friends, family and myself as a model but what transpires during my painting process always yields a revelation. The end result is a painting that solicits or awakens something in me … something that was not originally foreseen. I don’t fully “get” the painting immediately … its significance unfolds over time.

Often my paintings exude an enigmatic quality, which is not something for which I strive. However, I feel most resolved with a painting when it is imbued with elements of both ambiguity and precision. When a painting is completed, I feel as though I’ve met a stranger that I somehow know–a curious feeling of deja-vu.

I work with the belief that what is most personal is also most universal. My perception is that our vulnerability, our deepest innermost thoughts and feelings of the world around us can be common and shared.

66″ x 54″ oil on canvas

48″ x 36″ oil on canvas

48″ x 36″ oil on canvas

48″ x 36″. oil on canvas

40″ x 30″ oil on canvas

84″x72″ oil on canvas

84″x72″ oil on canvas

Artist: John F. Marok

Born in Montreal in 1960, John F. Marok graduated from John Abbott College and Concordia University with a special emphasis on painting. He is a recipient of the Queens Jubilee Medal, has been awarded Grants by the Canada Council and from Quebec’s ministère de la Culture and has painted and completed research residencies in Europe and Canada. An accomplished, full-time painter, Marok has been working and exhibiting for 35 years.

In 1980, Marok was jury selected at 19 years old (the youngest participant) for the 3rd Biennale of Quebec Painting, held at the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal. The following year he was represented by the Grunwald Gallery, a prestigious commercial gallery in Toronto and participated in an important exhibit of Quebec painting at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). At 22 years of age he was given his first one-man exhibition at Grunwald and received much critical acclaim and commercial success. Subsequent to several other exhibitions John’s work became nationally recognized and collected by several museums across Canada, namely: Musee d’art contemporain du Quebec (Montreal), Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), Musee du Quebec (Quebec), MOCCA (Toronto), Nickel Arts Museum (Calgary).

During the 1990’s Marok’s work was purchased exclusively by Jean Lapointe and then by Gaetan Morin. These highly regarded collectors sold and distributed Marok’s paintings into private collections and the collections of The University of Ottawa, The University of Quebec, McGill University and also the collections of the City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau which houses over 100 paintings by Marok.

For the past 25 years John has been living and working in Wakefield, Quebec where he maintains his full-time art practice. Of his paintings, John says: “My paintings are inspired, influenced and shaped through my experience of places, people and things in my life. I work with the belief that what is most personal is also most universal. My perception is that our vulnerability, our deepest innermost thoughts and feelings of the world around us can be common and shared.”