Carol & Mark are award winning artists who collaborate with each other (and with some amazing artist friends) to create woodturnings that push the envelope of color, narrative and surface treatment.
“Being artists is not a choice for us, it is a burning drive. We need to create something, everyday. Mark and I have built a life full of studios to reflect our passions – the Painting & Jewelry Studio over the garage, the Wood Shop and Photography Studio in the basement. Our hands are always busy.”
Carol began taking adult art classes when her mother decided to give her the big push – she was seven. At first, the teacher and other students didn’t take her seriously, but what she lacked in technique, she made up with enthusiasm. The instructor talked process, wanting the class to “unlearn” and approach a piece without preconceived ideas, the way a child does. This is where she had a leg up on all of them, because she was a kid.
“After years of training, I was filled with rules and techniques, making tight, precise work in pen & ink. It makes my shoulders stiff to even think about it. Then I met the love of my life in the form of a cocky, blonde, barefoot 15-year-old boy (Mark Hall), who filled up squirt guns with paint and taught me about abstract expressionism. The result was a liberation of all my artistic training.”
Mark grew up in a family of artists. His grandfather and father were furniture makers and his grandmother was a reverse glass painter and copper-smith. His love of theater lead him to an early career in lighting design, which is where their studio name, “White Light Productions”, comes from. Carol and Mark have had a career in Art their whole life, creating a line of handmade Seaglass Jewelry, sold internationally in over 300 locations.
5 years ago, Carol and Mark turned their focus to woodturning. Mark turns and Carol embellishes with carving, pyrography, acrylic paint and colored pencils. In this short time, they have dived deep – they are founding board members of the Mid Atlantic Woodturning Symposium, are active with several local AAW chapters, and have participated in Artist Cooperatives, including Echo Lake and EMMA. Carol’s collaborative work with Michael Kehs and Dan Greer won a 2016 Niche Award. She has published articles and teaches her varied surface techniques in demos called “Beyond Brown & Round”.
Working in so many disciplines is invigorating. They are inspired by Picasso’s many “periods”, during which he reinvented himself & his work, all the while still keeping a kernel of his essence in each collection. There is a clear design thread that connects all of their art. When seen as a body of work, you can recognize each of their hands. They find delight in a wavy grain pattern in wood and a slash of light on a collarbone. For Carol & Mark Hall, the medium is not the message.