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The worries of artist Mark Hosford make for compelling art

Posted 9/1/2010

Photo by Steve Green/Vanderbilt

Satan tempts a child to pick up a knife and commit murder. Two teeth-baring hounds prepare to feast on pink goop dripping from the sky. The innocent face of a child is accessorized with a sickly blue pallor, ram’s horns and worms crawling in and out of the mouth and eye sockets.

The art of Mark Hosford – grotesque, intricate, deeply personal – is not for the faint of heart or collectors looking for a pleasant landscape that matches the wallpaper in the den.

“It’s not supposed to be disturbing, but it often ends up that way,” said Hosford, associate professor of art, during an interview in his studio in the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center, flanked by drawings in various stages of completion and his collection of unique dog food cans from around the globe. While his art looks like it could be the product of the imagination of a fearsome thug, in person Hosford is soft-spoken, mild-mannered and earnest.

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