Artist Marc Potocsky Draws it Like He See's it...

by Rona Mann

There aren’t too many serious, world-famous artists simply called “Moe,” then again there aren’t too many artists like this one either.

"This one" is Marc Potocsky, a 69-year-old multi-pronged individual whoadmittedly, "just found myself."

Actually, he wasn't lost. He was just wandering, and wandering is a great thing for any artist. It allows one time and space, giving them permission to be a chameleon of sorts translating thought processes into form, style, and design which eventually make their way onto canvas, exploding into great art.

Ask Artist Potocsky how it all came about and suddenly he's a little kid again, growing up on Wooster Street in New Haven. His mother provided his first artistic influence when she bought him a little kids' Bible. In conversation, Potocsky never refers to anything pastoral in the Christian sense about the book itself but instead relates how taken he was with the pictures, especially the cover. He stared at the artwork constantly, memorizing the lines that delineated the characters and images portrayed, then trying to copy them with his own hand.

Like many parents of the day, Potocsky's mother purchased volumes of the 16-set Golden Book Encyclopedia each time she shopped at the A & P. It was a less expensive proposition than buying an entire set all at once from the door-to-door Encyclopedia Brittanica salesman. The Golden Book version held many images rich in color, and once again the young boy was enthralled, not by the knowledge within, but by the engaging illustrations. He stared at them for hours and once again, tried to reproduce them himself.

Marc was likewise distracted by school, but not by his friends for whom he provided constant drawings to gain their approval. Then one day things changed dramatically for the young man, the day the Beatles came to America. "I couldn't get enough of them or their music. I started toplay the drums, completely self-taught. I started playing in local New Haven bands at the age of 14, and it wasn't long before I had made up my mind, I wanted to be a rock star! Suddenly I felt I belonged to something."

Before long, high school was coming to an end, and it was time to grow up and make some decisions. Thanks to a teacher at the school who believed in the young man's art, he was able to get him a full scholarship to the famed Cooper Union in New York, arguably the best art school of its time and still considered one of the top 20 in the world. Free tuition, room and board, and...Marc turned it down! No school for him, he was going to be a rock 'n roll star!

And he was. He soon became the drummer for CBS recording artists and local Brooklyn punk rock sensations, The Laughing Dogs, touring extensively and drumming on both their albums. It was one of those band members who christened Marc Potocsky "Moe Potts," and the name stuck as Moe went on to play drums, record, and tour internationally for another son of New Haven, Michael Bolton. Moe also has toured with Johnny Winter, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Billy Falcon, and Foghat's late guitarist, Rod Price.

Potocsky onstage playing drums for Johnny Winter

A work in progress

But all that touring takes its toll, ask any performer in any genre. It was time, time after 30 years of drumming all over the world, time for Moe Potts the drummer to hang up his sticks and come home to Connecticut where he now would once again be Marc Potocsky, husband and father, ready to make some life changes. It was time to put down the sticks and pick up the brushes, time to paint again because now he realized how much he had missed the world of art. It was indeed time for Chapter Two, even at this latter stage in his life. "I realized I had a gift, and I had sat on that gift for years. I had to work hard at being a good drummer, but I never had to work hard to be good at my art."

Ask Marc about his style, and he smiles like a naughty child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I'm a copycat. I draw what I see." Working mainly in oil and acrylics his most outstanding talent is the ability to take a variety of methods, styles, and techniques and apply it to a given subject matter. His talent cannot be pigeon-holed nor characterized by a certain style;with each portrait he explores different facets and corners of his talent and often surprises, sometimes even himself.

His work ranges from pencil and charcoal drawings to acrylic painting and watercolor, to airbrushing, constantly mixing media to form conceptual to near-photo realism. One has only to look upon his portraits of music greats and sports legends to realize they have come from a place deep within the artist, created with great reverence and respect. Above all, his work defies simple description and is at its core, genuine.

Numerous Sports Art paintings have been commissioned by Victory Fine Art, a convergence of both art and sport located in Los Angeles, including the "NFL Super Bowl 50th Anniversary Painting." Potocsky has produced other artistic works of sports figures and points with pride to his portrait of Derek Jeter donated to the Connecticut Cancer Foundation where it was auctioned off for a staggering $15,000. "Every time I think of something I created possibly saving a life, I get choked up," the artist said humbly. A muralist as well, his compelling work is well-expressed at Toad's Place in New Haven, and he has also been represented in the recently-restored Yale Art Gallery.

In addition, Marc is owner along with his son, of MJP Studios, a full-service decorative painting company where he creates faux finishes, painted murals,fine art portraiture, and trompe l'oeil still life (a technique using realistic imagery to create optical illusions that what is depicted exists in three-dimension) reminiscent of another world-renowned Connecticut artist, Ken Davies from Madison.

Marc Potocsky and his son

Potocsky's work has been featured at the prestigious "Salon," an international gathering of decorative artists from all around the world and in books on both mural painting and designer faux finishes.

Marc points with pride to the fact that he has been commissioned to do three paintings of "One World Center Freedom Tower" in New York and is currently working on a series of "Rock Legends" for music businessclients, establishments, and art galleries. Obviously, the man may have laiddown his sticks, but the sounds and the beats are still deep within his soul,rising often to the surface through his unique and limitless talent. He hasbeen honored with much high praise and superlatives, but what he most prefersis to just be called "Moe" or "Copycat."

Ask Potocsky want he wants to do with the rest of his life now that he’s “found” himself, and the answer is simple. “I just want to paint 24/7 and use my art to help others through charities.” For now, at least, he’s put down the sticks, but his love of music and the part he’s played with the musicians he’s shared years with are never that far away from his mind, his heart, or the muscle memory in his hands.

When famous writer and poet, Dylan Thomas first came to the United States from his native Wales, his plane landed at what is now known worldwide as Kennedy or JFK Airport, but at the time it was called Idlewild. Thomas was intrigued by the name and remarked to the waiting press,"Idlewild is a perfect name for an artist or writer. One who is both idle and wild."

Moe Potts, with sticks in one hand and a brush in the other, can easily relate.Although he has achieved an enviable reputation both in the music world as well as having become a much sought after fine artist and portrait painter, he is at heart still young Marc Potocsky, the kid from Wooster Street wandering aimlessly, looking at the world with both a sense of wonder and more than alittle smirk on his face. In many ways he is still the young boy transfixed by the images on the children's Bible and Golden Book encyclopedia volumes, taken in by the colors, the beats, the entire scope of where fame has taken him; and like the poet, he remains happy, yet never quite content, residing in a world that has always been for him, and will forever remain, both idle and wild.

Marc Potocsky, the artist, currently has a show through the end of August at Six SummitGallery in the Westbrook Outlets, 314 Flat Rock Place, Westbrook For more information, www.mjpfaux.com Phone:(203) 640-2086