Mark Messersmith (1955-)  was born in Kansas City, Missouri lives and works in Tallahassee, Florida where he teaches at Florida State University.

The artist extends beyond the frame of his central images surveying man’s ruin. He also includes a small frieze of vignettes at the bottom and sculptural adornments at the frame’s edge.

His work explores themes of spirit and struggle within the modern world’s natural environments.

Messersmith likes to focus on the habitats of Florida’s animals in the way they live and react to one another.

In his words, “My work is really about our relationship to all other living creatures at this precarious moment, a place midway between hope and despair.”

His works reflect plants and animals, which are still able to survive,  often in small isolated natural habitats, and the effects of their inevitable forced migration, dislocation, or isolation.

His works build on stories (either real or conjectured), along with observations and concerns for the creatures that move within the shrinking environs they inhabit.

More of Mark Messersmith‘s inspirational work can be found at https://markmessersmith.com.