Artist Biography
Mark Gingerich was born on November 25, 1962 near the city of Hamburg in Germany where he grew up as a son of missionary parents from the United States. Mark comes from a long line of Amish Mennonite farmers and craftsmen and traces his lineage from both parents to the region of Hessen near the village of Waldeck, Germany. He attended the German public school until the age of 9 when his family moved back to the United States.
Mark's artistic gift began to surface while a teenager living in Madison County, Ohio. He won prizes in national competitions for high school in the early 1980's. He went on to paint large scale murals as part of his room and board in several homes in the mid 1980's while working in the construction field.
He began his own business as a brick and stone mason and married his high school sweetheart in 1986. He began to set aside time in the winter months to learn to paint in oils and to hone his drawing skills.
In 1996 Mark entered his work into an art gallery in Florida, and has since been represented in Ohio, Kentucky, and Florida.
He was one of six artists to paint in the Ohio bicentennial project Paint Ohio in 2003. Mark and five other artists ventured into Ohio's 88 counties to explore their histories and unique places in order to be captured on canvas. The paintings were exhibited at the Ohio Historical Society as well as other venues around the state and were sold at auction in the autumn of 2003. A commemorative book was also published entitled The Land We Call Ohio.
Mark and his wife Shana have been married for 25 years and have 5 children. He lives and maintains his studio in west central Ohio near the town of West Jefferson.