Mark Patnode received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Purchase College and is a Fellow of the Urban Artists Initiative (UAI), Hartford, CT, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism (CCT), in partnership with the Institute for Community Research. Mark is a recipient of several Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants, including two all-inclusive CCT awards to Vermont Studio Center where he worked with William Beckman, Michael Gitlin, David Kapp, Carol Robb. Mark has also received two all-inclusive Residencies to I-Park Artists’ Enclave. A Silver Rose recipient from Bulgaria’s Preeminent Poet, Lyubomir Levchev, Mark was sponsored by the Griffis & Orpheus Foundations for a summer 2006 Artist Residency at the Sharon House in the village of Polkovnik Serafimovo, Smolyan, Bulgaria. Mark’s work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums, including the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Real Art Ways, two Faber Birren National Color Award Shows, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Neuberger Museum, Smolian Art Gallery, Bulgaria, National Palace of Culture, Bulgaria, and is in the collection of Sr. Presidente Pedro Verona Pires, Cape Verde, Africa. He has been interviewed by American, African, Bulgarian, Cape Verde, Portuguese press and his work appears in the 2008 Orpheus Art Album Ford / Brod, St. Klinent Ohridski University Press, Lyubomir Levchev, Editor.   Mark is a member of the Bulgarian-American Exchange Program, CCY CulturArte, CT Plein Air Painters Society, Elected Member of Mystic Arts Center and Norwich Arts Center, Hygienic Galleries Programming Committee, Executive Board of Directors, Purchase College Alumni Association, Inc., New London Rotary International, and is listed in Who’s Who in American Art. Mark shares studio space with six other Artists at 73 Washington Street, New London and resides at the Griffis Art Center, New London, CT.