This guitar was hand-painted by our own Hope Creates board member, Mark Witzling, in support of the mission of Hope Creates. 

Included:
Two (2) guitar lessons from Shuqing Ma at a mutually agreed upon time and location.

Mark Witzling Artist Statement:
Visual art is a form of deep human expression and, like music and dance, allows communicating beyond the written and spoken word. Painting abstractly in oils is my method for this expression. While the process is often solitary and meditative, I find it to be energizing and inspiring. 

 

Perhaps because of my background in strategy, marketing and branding, complex ideas intrigue me, with nuanced layers teasing out the intricacies of a concept. I apply this to my painting approach by building up layers and excavating back into these visual stacks, repeating this push-pull process to evoke a sense of depth and understanding in the work. I enjoy the creative freedom of nonrepresentational art, although physical surroundings of landscape and geography frequently influence my approach and I am glad to allow this to occur spontaneously. My role as Executive Director of Craft Alliance (2018-2023) exposed me to a wide variety of forms of creative expression and now as a full-time artist, I continue to allow these forms to stimulate and influence my own creative expression.

 

My specific process uses cold wax medium blended with my oil paints to create the layered effects I seek to express. I often start with an underlying layer of graphite mark-making to bring interesting forms to the artwork and to suggest the compositional approach. My painting process rarely uses traditional brushes, instead working responsively with a variety of tools such as pastry scrapers, brayers, brooms, sticks, and even old credit cards to activate the surface.

 

I have studied, painted, and taught workshops in studios across the country, from Santa Fe and Albuquerque to Montana, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, and my art is included in private and corporate collections across the U.S. as well Europe and India. I was honored to receive a Diderot Grant and a Regional Arts Commission Grant to participate in an artist residency at Chateau Orquevaux (France), and my art appears in the books Cold Wax Medium – Techniques, Concepts, Conversation (Crowell & McLaughlin) and Artfolio 2021, A Curated Collection of the World’s Most Exciting Artists.  

 

Guitar Instructor Shuqing Ma Bio:
Shuqing Ma, born in the Liaoning province of China, is a musician and instructor. She moved to various places throughout the United States, eventually landing in St. Louis where she received her Bachelor’s of Arts in music at Webster University in 2020. During her time as a student, she tutored children and English language learners for the Student Literacy Corps. Currently, she is a freelance audio/visual technician and a teaching artist at St. Louis Classical Guitar, hoping to share her passion for music throughout the community.

Due to the exposure of living in a variety of places, she is quite adaptable and flexible. These frequent changes parallel her multiple hobbies - such as audio engineering, motorcycling, parkour, puzzles, wood working, metal working, soldering, and video games. 

For silent auction winners located outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area, the buyer is responsible for costs for shipping their purchased items from St. Louis to their destination. Buyers are responsible for paying Hope Creates the full shipping costs, to be paid when the cost is assessed based on weight and geographic location. Shipping costs will be processed with silent auction items within 4 business days of auction close. 

For silent auction winners located outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area, the buyer will have to take their two private lessons via Zoom at a mutually agreed upon time.

Local silent auction winners must pick up their item at the "Canvas of Hope” event or arrange for pick up at a mutually scheduled date/time in advance with Hope Creates. Please contact Jeni Luhrs to schedule your pickup: 
· 314-282-5389 or 

· jeni.fehr@hopecreates.org