Mark Mardirosian

Mark Mardirosian is an active bricolage artist in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Masters of Architecture with a Concentration in Historic Preservation in 1977, and then served as a Senior Architect at Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. (Detroit, Michigan) from 1977 until 2001. From 2001 until 2010 he acted as the Principal Senior Project Architect for the Kraemer Design Group, PLC (Detroit, Michigan).

"I have retired from my career as an Architect and have enjoyed having time to devote to my passion to create art from everyday objects. I define my work as Bricolage, a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts and literature, to refer to the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process. The term is borrowed from the French word bricolage, from the verb bricoler, the core meaning in French being, "fiddle, tinker" and, by extension, "to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand (regardless of their original purpose)".

My art takes the form of usable objects that I reinvigorate and redefine using discarded everyday familiar objects, ephemera and castoffs of the past as a palette for my work. I think of myself as an urban hunter-gatherer and assemble materials from a variety of sources. I am constantly on the lookout for the unusual as well as the mundane and my family and friends share the search. My architectural background has a strong influence on the direction and complexity of my work which has taken the form of birdhouses, boxes and furniture. As an architectural student at Cass Technical High School in the 1970s, I started putting wooden shapes together in interesting formations to decorate my bedroom walls and also experimented with painting. As my professional career developed at Albert Kahn Associates in Detroit and later at Kraemer Design Group I always felt the need to create art for my own personal enjoyment.

My work can be nostalgic, historical or just plain whimsical, juxtaposing memories and knickknacks that are castoffs of everyday activities. I am a lifelong Detroiter, currently living in Grosse Pointe Park. Much of my work contains objects and memories of forgotten Detroit. I like uncovering and incorporating parts of everyday items like coffee cans, match book covers, candy containers, Girl Scout cookie tins, etc. and assembling them together with local yard sticks, pencils, rulers, stamps, graphics and words to conjure up and enhance themes. I aspire to make people smile as they catch something familiar from their own personal history."