AH: For people viewing your work for the first time, what would you like them to know about the intention behind your work?

MG: That it can be interpreted in more than one way. I like to offer the viewer more than one plane of thought. Just as in real life there are many layers to observe and interpret , I depend on this, because it not only gives the viewer insight to my psyche but it really gives me insight to the viewer and what they feel in general or what mood they are in at that very moment. Even a lack of response gives me insight to that person, it’s very revealing.

My overall intention is to rivet the retina AND the Mind, to entertain visually and stimulate mentally and emotionally. Bottom line for me is no matter the concept, it just has to look Damn cool., and encompass what I call, “ The 6 C’s” Composition, Color, Concept, Commitment, Quality and Crazy!

AH: Your technique is superb to say the least. What was your process over the year in developing your variety of skills?

MG: Since I was a teenager, I would copy any painting of an artist that intrigued me technically and visually. I would work on it until it looked right and learn along the way what worked and what didn’t. Years of trial and error. My goal was to master every technique that inspired or intrigued me. It took 30 years as an acrylic painter to create a cohesive personal style that assimilated all I learned technically and convey my voice as a painter. Most of my artistic inspirations were technical virtuosos with oil paint like Van Eyck, Caravaggio, Bouguereau, Maxfield Parrish, Salvadore Dali, Frederick Church, John Singer Sargent, , Frank Frazetta, Van Gogh, and Ingres. Golden Age Illustrators, JC Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell, Meade Schaefer and Dean Cornwell. Not only did all these artists exhibit technical prowess but also excelled with the “ 6 C’s I mentioned earlier, which is why I think they strike such strong chords in me. They always hit a home run, which seems very mystical.

One of my art school mentors, acrylic painter Kathy Calderwood was a huge inspiration on my Trompe l’oeil techniques and showed me what illusions could be achieved in that medium and Kirk Reinert, also inspired me with his acrylic rendering ability..I started experimenting more with oils in 1991, copying Maxfield Parrish paintings in miniature to learn his incredible technique., but remained primarily an acrylic painter. More recently, these last 3 years, I’ve evolved into finishing the last phase of my paintings in oils, I love using the two mediums to truly exploit the advantage each has in the same work. To this day I feel like I don’t do the same thing twice technically.

AH: Something that always strikes me about your work is the views of both "light" and "dark". Though I never take that as a separation. It always seems as though you are showing the beauty in what we perceive as darkness. These worlds that you build have such life to them, so many levels, and so much depth. I'm hoping you can explain a bit of your perspective in their meaning.

MG: This relates to the first question, in that I like to present visually and conceptually the different layers of life, however dark or light they may be. You can’t have Yin without Yan, or good without evil, God without the devil. I want to show what lies beneath the surface of things, (both literally and figuratively) and to hold these layers up to the light for different interpretations. Illuminate the dark and veil the light. Seeing and feeling only the obvious is the burden of the insensitive, to interpret and observe these layers is the privilege of the perceptive. I encourage people who walk up to one of my paintings to not only be entertained visually but to slow down and think.....to wonder

AH: A question that is coming up for me with many of the artists I am interviewing is that their vision is apparent from very early on in their work. Though there seems to be a moment in time when their mind starts to full comprehend the message that has been seeping out for some time. Can you pin point a moment when you went from just doing the work, to fully feeling and comprehending the work?

MG: My parents might have some insight to this that’s different than my own. I still have these flip-pad cartoons I made (done at around age 9) that showed an early desire to combine violence with humor and even the “above and below” motif I love to use today. However, my pinpoint moment came as a student at Syracuse University. Being a full-time art student and immersing myself in myself without undue influence and most importantly for the first time working my tail off on art for long stretches. My ideas were pure, from my own experience, without fear, without judgment, and my “voice” was showing in its primitive form, it was an exciting time.

However, I was being trained as an Illustrator and a career as a fine artist was not an option at the time (around 1984). I made a living as a commercial artist and Illustrator until 2004. In the beginning, it was a dream come true, getting paid to paint and even completing more than 100 Sci- fi, horror and fantasy book covers. Years of being “art directed” took their toll on me along with crazy hours and bad agents, but the coup de grace was the computer revolution. Around 1993 I began to do more and more personal work, so by 2004 I had some momentum to create new work full time. The more I worked the more I saw my original “voice” re-assert itself from where I left off in college. Now I have the technique to fully realize my concepts.. Even so with all this experience I sometimes I feel like I was better then than I am now and to this day don’t know what the hell I’m doing! Such is the Nature of painting, there is no destination, it’s all about the journey.

AH: On another note, I was informed that you have another artistic passion, one that greatly contrasts the work we're featuring here. Done under another name even. Can you tell us a bit about this, and where this passion comes from?

MG: This relates to the question about technique. It comes from my passion to paint and to paint with more than one technique or style. Two of my favorite technicians are Maxfield Parrish and John Singer Sargent, you can’t have two more diametrically opposed styles but both excite me equally. I started to load up the brush with paint as an antidote to the endless hours of tight rendering in my illusionistic work. I was immediately hooked and did an eight painting series of Jazz influenced genre paintings in about 6 weeks. It felt so right from the start it was a no-brainer to create a separate entity, an alias that encompasses these very different painting sensibilities.

My Alias is Shilo Banks, and working in a more traditional academic style “he” focuses on Landscape and Genre painting with an emphasis on the American Civil War. Once the schizophrenic break was complete, all confusion with my styles was reconciled.

AH: On that note, how do the two worlds unite in the mind of the actual artist? Seems there has to be threads that are pulled from both directions to inspire aspects of each body of work?

MG: I’m guessing that the longer I work in these two styles the more they may visit or merge into each other, and I notice it occasionally. when I look at a real life scene that might influence a painting, I will consciously break it down as either Shilo or Garro, both perspectives are briefly pondered then one is picked to finish out the thought process visually or conceptually. It depends on which entity has painting momentum. Shilo has been on a bit of a hiatus lately.

AH: What does the future hold for Mark Garro? Are there specific projects you've been wanting to take on and pursue or anything you'd like to share in terms of future works?

MG: Well then, give me back the crystal ball you borrowed....ahhhh ok, hmmmm, I see a bald guy, a very bald guy, painting and hoping, hoping and painting. Hoping to always be able to continue to paint and have collectors who want to purchase the works. I’d like to continue evolving my latest body of work, do modern takes on classical themes and hope to make really interesting things to look at and interpret. Ideally I’d like to scale –UP the size I’m working and also shrink down and do more miniatures. But basically, I just want to paint well.

AH: Mark, it's been a pleasure speaking with you, and I'm sure our readers appreciate this conversation as much as I do. Is there any words of wisdom that you', like to leave us with in closing?

MG: To non-artists I would like to say how important it is to support the arts any way you can. I can’t stress this enough. It’s the most important, non-essential, essential element in our society. How we treat the arts shows us the health status of our civilization,....our humanity. To other artists I say, making art is a privilege as much as it is a right. The hardest part is to persist under all circumstances, good and bad. Never giving up is the common denominator with all successful people. I’d like to end with a quote from an unlikely source, soccer player, Hope Solo: “If you truly expect to realize your dreams, abandon the need for blanket approval. If conforming to everyone’s expectations is your number one goal, you have sacrificed your uniqueness,and therefore your excellence.”