Mark Louis Walters

Mark Louis Walters is an American born artist, designer and art director. His paintings are in private collections around the United States, and his work in film, television, theater, video games and theme parks has been enjoyed by millions world-wide.

Mark was born in Ohio, the fourth son of Mary and Jack Walters, a musician and engineer respectively. Although he was performing music and theater at a very young age, as well as studying painting from the age of six, his burning ambition in life was to be a fighter pilot. This culminated in Mark obtaining his pilot’s license at the age of seventeen and an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis to pursue his dream of becoming a naval aviator. However, a head injury sustained from participating in boxing left him unfit for pilot training and he had to resign from the Academy. He decide to switch directions and pursue a career in the arts, in which he had always excelled. He earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Nevada- Las Vegas.

Mark paints grand theatrical works that juxtapose found images, words and occasionally found objects. His pieces play with multiple meanings of images and words, often incorporating humor or slang definitions. His paintings are frequently completed with sculptural frames he creates to extend both the picture plane itself as well as the possible narrative meanings. Some of his works are very large, with figures at life size scale or greater.

He has had exhibitions in Las Vegas at Markus Galleries and Allied Arts as well as open studio shows in Los Angeles. He was part of Disarming Images, a traveling show about nuclear disarmament that toured throughout the United States.

Mark has worked as a motion picture art director for nearly thirty years and has designed or art directed projects for nearly all of the major studios including Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Disney. His work includes major properties such as Transformers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as hit television shows. He also has credits as a video game writer for Activision on titles for Marvel and Dreamworks.

Among Mark’s many awards are three nominations for Excellence in Production Design by the Art Directors Guild, a Themed Entertainment Award for attraction design, and various awards from regional theater. His artwork has received prizes from juried shows such as two awards from ‘Art Affair’ in Las Vegas.

Mark now resides with his family in San Quirico d’Orcia in the province of Siena in Tuscany, Italy.