Mark Harmel

Artist Statement

Sightings implies vision from a distance

Sightings is weather…and weathered faces,

a glimpse of the ephemeral, the figure

just rounding a corner, a storefront.

Sightings is the latent music of a poised piano.

Mark Harmel's Sightings are more direct than that—

movement captured, meaning and metaphor defined.

Sightings is Elvis leaving the building…

but only to pose on the sidewalk.

Perhaps Insight-ings is more appropriate;

Sightings is a fur coat in New York,

a wetsuit in Los Angeles, and the roads between.

the images open, focal planes expanding outward

and inward simultaneously.

These images exist in the world, unnoticed by most.

They must be sought to be seen.

Sightings are made.