As a native New Yorker, I am used to having ample source material for artwork right at my front door. I look to the city itself and its inhabitants as subjects for my paintings. I observe real people, places, and situations, mix them up with inventions from my own head, and assemble the pieces to fabricate dream-like scenarios. Lots of people in this city have elaborate fantasy lives and often wear them on the outside. Sometimes an ordinary New York day can transform into a twisted carnival scene from a Hollywood musical right before my eyes. Just underneath the ordinary course of everyday events lurks a mythical reality, one short stop on the brain-train away. Most people don’t have time to wait and watch. I make it my business to do both, and to record what I observe there.

Once I identify the component parts the rest falls into place, like I’m playing with a dolls house, arranging characters in a setting and making up stories about them. Only it’s my building and my street, and the characters are taken from real people, or mostly real. I start by painting with white on a dark canvas. That way the picture emerges from darkness the same way as images in a dream.

--Terry Marks              
New York City, 2007