Mark Messersmith

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Since moving to north Florida in 1985, I have been taken with the uniqueness of the region's environment, and the beauty of its lands and animals. While both land and animals are vulnerable, they share a strong determination for survival and still offer potential dangers for the unwary visitor. With my Southern landscape paintings I think about ideas concerning; myths and facts, good and evil, life and death, human versus nature. The Southern landscape I paint is, at least for awhile, still out there somewhere, somewhere just beyond the urban sprawl, our shopping malls, and trailer parks. It is a land still inhabited by powerful birds, vigilant panthers, wary gators, blackwater swamps, old cypress trees, back road citrus stands, and careening logging trucks. Mark Messersmith 2005