When Nobody’s Watching

Gallery: Mark Messersmith’s Art Gallery Is Now on Display in the Beck Family Innovation Center

Full Moons Rising: The painting on the top is named Year of Full Moons Series #7, and the bottom piece is Year of Full moons Series #8. Both are among his newer paintings, created in 2025. Like most of his paintings, these are both oil paintings. While they do not have the elaborate painted and carved frames found on many of his other works, they still represent Messersmith’s unique painting style.

Nature At Night: Part of the Anxiety Series, this piece is called Black-Crowned Night Heron and was created in 2018 using oil paints. It reflects the style Messersmith used that year, featuring bright imagery.

Birds-Eye View: This painting, Tarpon Hunters, is another piece in the Anxiety Series. It was made with oil paints in 2017. The canvas is surrounded by painted wood carvings of fish, moths and birds that metaphorically extend the painting beyond its frame.

Wildlife In The City: This painting, titled U.S. 27 by Moonlight, is part of Messersmith’s Anxiety Series. The piece seems to depict a subtle urban background, highlighting his central theme of human civilization’s complex relationship with nature. At the top of the canvas is a carved wooden display of a bird carrying a snake.

Under The Stars: Created in 2018, this piece is one of the older works on display, as many others are from this year. It shows the progression of Messersmith’s art, offering a glimpse into his earlier style and creative growth.

The Main Event: This piece is an 84x74 inch oil painting with carved wooden pieces at the top and bottom, creating an elaborate frame that complements the artwork. The piece is both chaotic and vivid, with lighting that feels almost divine. The pillars in the background represent modern structures, creating tension with nature’s beauty, a recurring theme in Messersmith’s pieces.

Behind The Scenes: Mark Messersmith’s paintings focus on Florida’s vast landscapes. In his paintings, he reveals hidden threats to wildlife and explores many symbolic ideas.

Pieces to Remember: In total, there are 12 paintings on display at the Beck Family Innovation Center where they will remain until February. They each have similar details, including the common use of nature, animals, vibrant colors and carved wooden frames.

An Unforgettable Artist: Mark Messersmith is a painter and art professor at FSU. His paintings are easy to recognize because of their vivid colors, the relationship between humans and nature and the carved wooden frames that are unique to each piece.

Serenity Within Anxiety: The painting's title, Still Waters of Anxieties, is contradictory because “still” and “anxiety” are rarely used together. With this, Messersmith demonstrates how calmness and anxiety can coexist, with the “still” representing the peacefulness of nature and the “anxiety” symbolizing the environmental impact of humans.