Mark Sisson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1957. He attended Albion College briefly and later earned a BFA from the University of Michigan. After an unsuccessful foray into the world of retail he returned to the cloistered life of the university and earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984. While at UW, the satirical, political works of Warrington Colescott and Raymond Gloeckler heavily influenced him. Mr. Gloeckler also introduced him to the lusty and physical art of Woodcut (Relief Printmaking). After working his way through a portion of the University of Wisconsin system as a temporary instructor and sabbatical replacement, Mark Sisson found fertile (red) clay in which to sink his roots at Oklahoma State University in 1989. He was promoted to Professor of Art in 2001. In 2017 he was named Regent’s Distinquished Research Professor at Oklahoma State University.
His works have been labeled from “moralist” to “iconoclastic” complementary to the straightforward, linear contrasts of relief printmaking and large charcoal and pastel drawings that form his ouevre. His prints are often called political, sometimes humorous, and occasionally acerbic. Technically, they owe a debt to approaches as antithetical as German Expressionist graphics and 19th century British and American wood engraving, and their content could place them as part of the long socio-political history of relief printmaking.
Prints and drawings by Mark Sisson have been in over 300 juried and invitational national exhibitions where they have received more than 70 awards. His works are in many public and private collections including the Fogg Museum of Harvard University, The Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, MO and the Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown, OH. His work can be seen in the books: The Best of Printmaking: An International Collection, The Georgia Review and An Engraver’s Globe, an international survey of wood engraving and woodcut by Simon Brett.