Meet Marc Waldthausen | Artist & Software Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marc Waldthausen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marc, why did you pursue a creative career?
I didn’t start out looking to make a career from my art, and to be clear, I haven’t quit my day job just yet either. My artistic career simply began as an outlet from the analytical work I do as a software engineer. After my workday, I wanted to be able to shut down the logical side of my brain and open up the creative side to find a bit of balance. It turns out that’s not as easy as it may sound, but I’m learning to allow and accept that you’ll find both sides well represented in the fingerprint of my creative endeavors.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a software engineer by trade, having spent over two decades in the field. I attempt to fuse that analytical side of my personality with my desire for creative expression. My work often involves equal parts contemplation and experimentation with the aim of bringing interest, life, and movement into my paintings for the viewer to make their own connection to each piece.

I think including experimentation in my process is one of the most valuable things that has helped me progress to where I am today. Somewhat famously, one of the 10 rules Sister Mary Corita Kent had in her classroom was “consider everything an experiment”, and this is something I try to always keep in mind because in an experiment, there is no real failure. Truly, things may not go as you planned, or as you had hoped, but from that you learn and you can move on. For me, adopting this mindset of experimentation helps take some of the “finality” out of what we may typically perceive as failure.

One of the experiments I tried, and that has stuck around, has been the act of sanding some of my paintings. Yeah, that’s right, sanding with good old-fashioned sandpaper. It started with a small painting on a wooden panel that I wasn’t very happy with. It had a lot of brush strokes and texture that just wasn’t working and I had the thought of sanding it all away and starting over simply so the panel wouldn’t go to waste. When I started sanding it back I started to like what was appearing when the texture was removed. I didn’t completely sand away what was there and the destructive act actually gave me a new “canvas” to work with and a new starting point.

Some of my sanded paintings don’t follow so much of an intuitive process as they do a constructed analytical process. If I go into the work with a plan of how and what I want to expose, I’ll build out the painting “backwards”, knowing that the top layers are going to be removed the most and the ones applied first may only show a little bit.

I’m excited by further exploring my sanding experiment, other prior experiments, and the prospect of future experiments. Experiments with new techniques. Experiments with new materials. Experiments with new forms of presentation, expression, and collaboration. The number of experiments is endless!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was visiting, I would first recommend they stay at either The Ramble or The Rally hotels. I’ve stayed at both a couple of times and have enjoyed each of them. It’s hard to beat the location of The Rally and sunsets from the rooftop deck are amazing. But I love the vibe at The Ramble, the bar and coffee shop in the lobby, and of course you can just walk out the door to all that RiNo has to offer.

Speaking of RiNo, of course we’re going to stroll through the alleyways and take in all the murals. Maybe we’d eat breakfast at Stowaway Kitchen, grab lunch at Rye Society, visit the RedLine art center to see what’s going on, get a pizza at Cart-Driver, and get a drink at Death and Company.

As an abstract artist I, of course, will go with anyone to visit the Clyfford Still Museum. (I just recently took one of my old college roommates there while he was in town.) The art and the architecture are both wonderful. We’d have to get outside and do some exploring too. A hike to Chasm Lake will take anyone’s breath away, both literally and figuratively, and is one of my favorites.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to my wife, Erica, whose own creative spirit encouraged mine to show itself. She is a self-made jewelry designer and always insisted that I had a creative spark inside of me. She saw the connection between my analytical problem solving skills and the application of those skills to creative pursuits long before I did.

Special thanks also to Diana-Marie Haddad and the rest of the crew at RemainReal Fine Art Gallery for being the first to formally show my art, giving me my first solo show, and for all of the continued support. I truly appreciate the encouragement given by and friendships I’ve made through the gallery.

Website: https://studiowaldthausen.com

Instagram: @studio.waldthausen