The New England coastline is where I am originally from, and yes, that is where I started surfing. Our summers were spent close to the seaside at our family’s beach cottage, and the winters were a time to visit when Nor’easters unleashed power from the Atlantic Ocean. It wasn’t until 1978 when I rode my first surfboard. After that memorable day, I was turned on to a wonderful life style with a lot
of travel, new adventures and great friends. Surf trips began in my teenage years. Packing up the car and road tripping north to Maine, or heading south to Rhode Island, or Cape Hatteras for the August hurricane season. California, Mexico, and Hawaii were soon to follow. After college, a year in Europe brought me to surf spots around the UK, France, Spain, and Portugal. Surfing began my passion for drawing waves. Most of them were drawn on scrap paper, notebooks, textbooks, and the best ones were on my high school desk tops. I can only wish that we had digital cameras available to us then; I could have taken photos before cleaning all the desks in detention, oh well, I did save some of the books and scraps. With no formal art training, or any organized art classes I continued over the years doodling, sketching and “adorning” some of my residences with wall murals; always losing my security deposit. Only a few years ago, I finally got a hold of something I enjoy. I began doing sketches, moved into pastels, photography, and painting. I then began designing metal sculptures, then with the inspiration from a brilliant wood carver, picked up a hammer, chisel and a piece of wood in my garage and began to sculpt waves. Each time I cut into the wood, it feels like I am carving into the perfect wave. My passion is, that each individual that acquires a piece of my art, will connect with a dimension that shapes our lives. Welcome to “Ocean Art by Mark Saracusa.”
