>bio
Brendon Marczan is a Sydney-based artist with an eye for bold colour, intricate design and striking imagery. Born in 1983, just two weeks after the release of Holiday by Madonna, Brendon’s upbringing had a potent blend of conventional family drama and creative inspiration. His Mother’s family were all amateur artists – He got his first lessons in composition from his uncle Ted, an accomplished pastel artist. Even family camping trips were recorded in pencil by Brendon’s Mum.
“She comes from a family of eight,” says Brendon, “and all of them can draw. It was a crazy house when I was young, with lots of comings and goings, but somehow I managed to zone out and sketch away in my own little world.” Brendon’s inspiration came from the world around him. His take on the mundane brought challenging colour and exuberant patterns to everyday objects and phrases.
Brendon’s High School experience matched the growing diversity of social and cultural Sydney. The impact on his drawing is striking: “My friends and classmates came from a dizzying variety of cultural backgrounds,” says Brendon, “and I was fascinated by the colours, motifs and patterns I saw in ordinary Sydney suburban houses.” His love of ornament has endured and Brendon revels in using the patterns of different cultures in new and innovative ways. He believes ornament represents vital and timeless design that is often taken for granted. “So many of these patterns meant so much more in their original cultural contexts,” says Brendon. “I love the fact that a motif can be both beautiful and signify something as fundamental as life and death, or the gulf between physical and spiritual.”
But most of all, Brendon believes that the clever use of ornament makes his art accessible and joyful for the viewer. “I’ve always wanted to evoke happiness with my art,” says Brendon. He spent his English classes sketching formal dresses for the girls in High School, combining his love of colour, design and the variety of the human form. “I think that’s when I got hooked on bringing happiness through drawing,” says Brendon. “Putting something beautiful on paper that the viewer relates to gives me a great sense of achievement.”
Brendon’s early interest in fashion and design won him a scholarship to the KvB Institute, now Raffles College of Design and Commerce. It was there that he began to experiment with new media, like the multi-coloured Copic markers that have become his trademark. “I had previously worked in pencil, charcoal and oil,” says Brendon, “but this new medium gave me the freedom to light-up intricate designs with vibrant and relevant colour.”
Brendon’s illustration teacher at KvB was an Italian who had worked for Gianni Versace. His instruction on form and colour management allowed Brendon to bridge a gap between design and art, marrying ornament and form in new, larger-scale works. Brendon later worked as an illustrator for designer Nicola Finetti: “I loved bringing beautiful things to life on paper but it seemed so rigorous to have to represent what I saw so accurately. My impressions of an object’s beauty are not always what the viewer expects to see. Their reaction of surprise and, I hope, delight gives me a great deal of satisfaction.” Challenging audiences to celebrate the obscured beauty around them, in ornament and form, is a rare thing in today’s shock-addicted world.
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