John Mark Moore is a South African

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

whose passion for wildlife and natural heritage visually fuses themes of spirituality and mysticism. John is a Master

Printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

and has also held teaching positions at Crawford College in Lonehill, Wits Technikon, St. Andrews School, St. John's College and Parktown College. He assisted

Philippa Hobbs Philippa Hobbs is a published South African art historian, an artist and an art collector. She was born in 1955 and matriculated at St Andrew's School in 1972. She studied art at the Johannesburg College of Art before finishing a post-graduate prin ...

as a technical printer, from 1993 to 1996.

John Moore's art

In addition to depictions of wildlife and the plight of endangered species, his work often also includes references to Southern Africa's ancient San- and Koi- bushman rock painting heritage. He represents nature from a

conceptual Conceptual may refer to: Philosophy and Humanities *Concept *Conceptualism *Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis) *Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition) *Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism) *Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...

point of view. His style contains elements of the

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

, tension between esoteric polymorphism and traditional naturalism which he believes allows the viewer to find their own interpretation of the work and allows it to speak to them personally.

Background

Having grown up in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

and spending many holidays in the bush, his interaction with the wildlife led to a growing desire to produce wildlife art depicting their interaction in nature. He chose the printmaking medium because it enables one to produce editions and therefore is accessible to more people. He has donated funds to

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

(WWF) and

Endangered Wildlife Trust The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that str ...

(EWT) and has created specific works for charity fund raising, e.g., Red Nose Day where the work was used as advertising on signboards throughout South Africa. He has also done a commission for Life Line. He completed a work for the

Nelson Mandela Children's Fund The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF) is a charitable organisation founded by Nelson Mandela, based in South Africa. Its mission is to help individuals from birth to age 22.John Moore's Online Store
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, John South African artists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)