Markus Tracy is a visual artist, muralist, and teaching artist, actively exhibiting his studio art and being awarded mural commissions and site-specific projects throughout the United States. Markus also continues to consult and organize visual arts and community projects with other artists, public schools, arts commissions and councils, and performing arts centers. My teaching philosophy is to guide my students and the community in and through the arts by encouraging creative risk-taking, using imagination as a learning tool, recognizing that art-making is about being brave and vulnerable, and embracing mistakes as part of the learning process. Another teaching philosophy is to use the arts to help students establish a voice within their artistic practice. Those guiding principles help create honest and meaningful murals and site-specific projects.

Markus believes that a visual artist, muralist, and teacher should be civically engaged through school and community partnerships. This engagement allows for the celebration of cultural diversity, an awareness of socioeconomic concerns, conflict resolution, celebration of past histories, current events, guidance for a sustainable future, and lastly, life-skill exercises in and through the arts.