ROCHESTER TEN | SCAR MARKHAM 

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Age: 35
Hometown: Rochester
Current residence: Rochester
Occupation: Full-time artist

Practicing drums amongst the radio hum and cathode ray tube static and whine, there’s a renaissance man in Rochester’s midst. Scar Markham is more than just a musician, but someone creating art in every form, using his skills and materials to uplift other artists in Rochester.

From murals and music to woodworking, sculpture and traditional painting, Markham really does it all, artistically speaking. It’s not at all uncommon to encounter him as part of the band Chores — usually playing at The Bug Jar — or across town scoping out a new project for himself, scavenging vintage electronics to repair.

“He’s constantly engaged, always working on something,” said Jennifer Wameling, guitarist for Chores. “It’s not just art and music, he’s always working on electronics or hunting for vintage things friends would want.”

With a style defined by intentionally shaky linework and half-lidded eyes, Markham’s art is influenced by every part of his life. It would be difficult enough to mistake his perpetually exhausted “little blue guy” character with top surgery scars for anyone else’s work, but Markham’s stylized and shaky line work is by no means random, stemming from the influence of his late grandmother.

“She had Parkinson’s, but she was also an artist and was very talented,” Markham said. “Later in life, when she would draw, it was very wiggly and frustrating for her. I thought she was the greatest, and I thought it all looked amazing and was so wonderful. It’s an homage to her that I put wiggles in my linework.”

While Markham might have myriad artistic endeavors, his music is always the first thing he excitedly brings up, and what he always comes back around to.

“I feel very isolated in my work now, because I work from home,” Markham said. “The only tether I have to the outside community is my music and playing with my band. The music community here is so supportive — we’re all going out to each other’s shows, everybody is hanging out all the time. It’s a very great community.”

A history of collaboration throughout Rochester also shapes Markham’s art. After becoming a part of the local skateboarding community, he began selling zines here in Rochester. As time went on, Markham went on to do more complex pieces, including murals such as the one at the Rochester City Skatepark.

Erich Lehman, owner and curator of the 1975 Gallery, is an avid fan of both Markham’s work and attitude towards collaborating with other artists. For the Rochester Institute of Technology’s current “Sketchy!” exhibit, which Lehman curated, Markham even went out of his way to create an elaborate diorama in order to help showcase another artist’s work.

“Scar’s stuff was already done, and he came back and pitched it as two powerline poles,” said Lehman. “He kept building on it, and built a diorama of these telephone poles, down to little flyers on the poles, literally the next day. His willingness to jump in and do something that benefits another artist — that’s real selflessness.”

Lehman also fondly recounted a story of Markham’s woodworking, where he crafted two boxes from a thin veneer of skateboard wood to bring to life a concept Lehman described as a personal ‘therapeutic device.’

“Scar took a lot of meaning from that project too, in that I would trust him to work on something that is so insanely personal,” Lehman said. “He appreciated the weight of what I was asking him to do.” — JUNE "CM" MCCAMBRIDGE