Martin Russocki

Martin Russocki is a multidisciplinary artist who works in a wide variety of mediums and scales; from urban inspired paintings to, analog games, to large scale, interactive, sculptural installations that challenge participants to transcend dysfunctional paradigms while working together for the benefit of others.

Martin began his career in architecture in New York City where he first met Art With Me”s founder, David Graziano. In 2018 They collaborated with the late James Digiorgio and Taylor Kuffner on a large scale installation titled The Gamelatron. This piece invited participants to pay it forward by rotating a large wooden spool which in turn pulled a bed through a 25 meter sound bath designed by Kuffner.

This year David Graziano has invited Martin Russocki to help create another It’s A-Mazing Entry piece for AWM 2021. Thé maze will engage participants in a meaningful way, once again invoking the powerful mind / maze metaphor leaving people inspired and ready to explore the festival.

In 2019 Russocki, Digiorgio, Graziano, Jeanne Littooy, Christian Breeden, several other designers and many craftsmen collaborated again on the design of Its -Amaze-ing, a 100 foot long bamboo maze that doubled as a metaphor of the mind. Participants navigated the maze in teams, encountering performers who personified the various trappings of the mind, encouraging them to transcend their limiting thoughts in order to be present.

The performers entertained maze goers with music and dance while imparting pearls of mindfulness wisdom and clues on how to successfully exit the maze. Once out of the maze, teams hand spun a machine designed to rotate a circular bed inside a 12 meter tall tower where the preceding team ( having successfully solved the maze ) lay in a circle immersed in the present moment, enjoying a sound bath and the view above : a giant spiral of plants inscribed in a dream catcher.