Mark Adams More Than the Perfect Image

Provincetown Magazine April 27, 2023

by Rebecca M. Alvin

Our relationship with the natural world is often thought of in terms of some sort of inherent man vs. nature conflict, as though we are not actually a part of nature, as if humans are not natural. It’s a false contradiction to place humanity in a separate category. Likewise, there are many pseudo-contradictions we buy into. For example, the idea that math and science stand apart from music and art, and to excel in one means you probably will not excel in the other. But we know the musical mind is quite mathematical. We know that artists and scientists share powerful critical thinking skills that allow them to see the world as it is but also to acknowledge all that we don’t know about it; both look at the world with wonder.

No one proves false these contradictions better than Mark Adams, a scientist and cartographer working with the National Park Service and the Center for Coastal Studies for many years, and also an exceptional artist named Artist of the Year for 2023 by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, a title he will officially receive at the unveiling of his new work in a reception at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in Yarmouth, Mass., this week.

Detail from Adams’ work-in-progress Refugee Washashores series
Photo: Rebecca M. Alvin

Adams is thinking a lot about humanity’s place in the natural world, not as something separate from nature or better or worse than it, but as a specific part of it at this moment in time. “I grew up with the idea that we need to deserve our place, we need to earn our place in nature, by living with nature. I mean, I don’t know if it’s a spiritual idea at all, but the thing is that if you look at evolution there’s very few successful species that are still around,” he explains. “We don’t know. We’re just still on probation… I think that’s kind of one of those spiritual ideas for me is: what’s special about people? I think people are special in nature and the systems of the world. We’re a special animal. We’re the shapers of the world, but we also benefit from it. So that’s my spirituality. You gotta acknowledge that you get to be part of that system. If you see waves coming at the beach, you don’t just yell stop, you understand.”