Publisher’s Note:

MaRco’s latest artworks, his “rumi nations” about the “Climate Catastrophe,” spring from “a waking dream—call it a nightmare, if you please—that this IS the road we are heading down.”

He articulates that nightmare through an in-progress series of paintings called All Along the Watchtower: Visions of a Degraded Biosphere, which includes Paradise Lost above, and with these words:

“Our corrupt, or asleep-at-the-wheel, elected officials and their hard-hat-wearing salt-of-the-earth buddies, the Fat Cat lumber barons with the whole lot of greedy contractors, and the national terrorist militias with their camo outfits, can all come along with us—after all, they have no other choice—on this sinking ship of fools called Livable Planet. How about a merry toast to you all! It’s been quite a ride. Pass the champagne. And be grateful.

“The question is: Will we have a final, hectic brawl à la John Wayne on the deck, a time for bullies to shine, or will we join hands, tearfully singing Kumbaya to the tune of bagpipes, as we go down with the ship, praying to the glory of the grandest extinction of them all?”

MaRco Elliott

is a painter and author who grew up in the foothills of the southern Mediterranean Alps and attended the École Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. As a young man, he spent time traveling in several countries and carried several sketchbooks along. After settling in southern France, he was awarded art commissions for street murals, created a body of plein air paintings, and often made ends meet as a graphic artist/illustrator and by doing manual jobs, most notably as an apprentice Stonemason restoring a medieval castle in the Haut Var.

While documenting murals to be featured in a book he was writing for a Parisian publisher, he met his future wife, Joann Carrabbio, also a painter, a muralist who was teaching art in Los Angeles. Soon, he himself was teaching art in Los Angeles. During that 22-year period, he was awarded commissions to create three murals with students for SPARC & the Cultural Affairs of L.A. and for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. In 2000, he completed a second book for the same Parisian publisher, entitled Secrets de la Carte a Gratter (Secrets of Scratchboard) (LTA, Paris).

In 2009, MaRco and Joann moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he continues to expand his body of plein air paintings and is working on several book projects. Read more about his travel adventures in his expanded bio and visit his galleries at: marcoelliott.com.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Art show at downtown Eugene Public Library reflects an artist’s fascination with the Oregon coast as well as the France of his childhood by Randy Bjornstad in The Eugene Review (9 September 2017)

⚡ Artist of Many Styles + Gallerist with Same Ideas = Eclectic Show at Downtown Eugene Gallery by Randy Bjornstad in The Eugene Scene (23 December 2016)