Ten Years Later with Handmade Paper Artist Mark Vranesh

Art is where my heart is,” says Mark Vranesh, .and his love of art certainly keeps him busy. When he isn’t working on his watercolors, making paper or baskets, or crafting with gourds, he is a promoter of outdoor arts and crafts shows in his native town of Las Vegas.

Another sample of Vranesh’s work.

Ten years ago, Vranesh ran a small classified ad in The Crafts Report to draw interest to his handmade paper cards with Southwest and nautical themes. Vranesh wanted to use the cards to get his poetry and proverbs out to people.

Vranesh was hoping to sell the cards wholesale and says he participated in some big shows and had people offer to set up a factory to make the cards. “I realized I wasn’t ready to go wholesale,” he says now. “I didn’t want to give up the uniqueness of my work and I realized that my creativity could be stifled if I went wholesale.”

Once he decided that wholesaling wasn’t what he wanted, Vranesh had to rethink his business.

His current focus is his watercolors that are inspired by the rock art or petroglyphs left by ancient people on the cliffs and rock formations of Southern Nevada.

To create these works of art, Vranesh goes through a multi-step process that includes, stretching cotton-based paper over a form and painting his watercolors on the canvas. “Sometimes I take strips of my homemade paper and incorporate them into my landscapes using a collage technique,” he explains.

According to Vranesh, the finished product looks like the image was painted on a rock. “I’ve had people argue with me and say that the painting is on actual rock, not paper,” he says.

Vranesh sells most of his work through the Red Rock Interpretive Center Store. This is a non-profit gift shop but, according to Vranesh, “It is more like a museum store.”

His art is displayed in a large area in the store that can show up to 20 to 25 paintings at a time. Vranesh says the response is amazing. “I hear from one to two people a week who see my work at the store and want to buy more.”

Mark Vranesh’s work is inspired by the petroglyphs found in Southern Nevada.

Vranesh did not originally intend to have a career in art. He was in law school when he first started painting. “Right away people wanted to buy my stuff,” he says. “I paid for my entire law school (tuition) with sales from my paintings.” After graduating, Vranesh decided to try to make a living selling his art. “I’ve never gone back,” he says.

Lately Vranesh spends part of his time promoting outdoor art shows and feels that Las Vegas is “ready for quality outdoor festivals.”

Up until the fall of 2001, he had been in charge of four shows a year, but in fall 2002 he organized six shows. Vranesh says many of the shows’ exhibitors say he does a good job because he “knows the artist’s point of view.”

Being busy and successful has changed the way Vranesh does business. “I feel very lucky,” he says. “Now I only go to about 15 shows a year. I used to go every weekend. Now I can be more selective. But I still like to be adventurous. I like to try shows in different places that I haven’t been to before.”

In the future, Vranesh wants to make more time for his art. “Art definitely has a purpose and it can be healing,” he says. “I will continue to organize fairs and festivals but I have no desire to do any more. What is important to me is to keep the balance.”

And even though he abandoned the card project 10 years ago, Vranesh still finds new uses for his handmade paper. “I recently made bookmarks from strips of my handmade paper mixed with recycled paper to announce the opening of the Paseo Verde Library in Henderson, Nev.,” he says.

Monique Holloway is assistant editor of The Crafts Report.