Mark Engel studied painting and drawing at San Jose State University where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1998. At San Jose State, Mark studied with artist/professor Leroy Wheeler Parker and worked closely with him on a utility cover project which consisted of painting on and making monoprints from iron covers in the streets. This project took Mark to Rome, Florence, and Venice Italy where he boldly painted colorful designs on covers in front of the Pantheon and other historical structures around Italy.
Mark began his teaching career while still in graduate school by teaching art to incarcerated adults and at-risk youth. After graduation, he taught part-time at many Bay Area colleges until he was hired as a full-time instructor at Mission College in 2004. Mark oversees the art department's two dimensional art program and teaches classes in drawing, life drawing, painting, printmaking, and two-dimensional design. In addition, he has worked as an artist-in-residence on many projects through Arts Council Silicon Valley, and his art can be found in numerous public and private collections in the U.S. and Canada.
