Artist & Blacksmith Mark Krause Arrested
Posted Under: Friends
Mark was arrested in Seattle last week while visiting friends. Krause is accused of placing a homemade explosive device six months ago at a church in Osage, Arkansas, that was serving as a polling place.
Mark is no killer and he needs our help. Please see the link below to donate to his defense and get up to date info on his case
Free Mark Krause.blogspot
Full FBI Affidavit
TPMMuckraker
News Story Dec 9th
Boing Boing Story
ABANA Article
Benton County Jail address
IMAGE: CE Nelson/Nelsonfoto.com, 2009, All Rights Reserved
Mark’s website and a look at his art:
Fayetteville artists headed to San Francisco for Maker Faire
Below is a story I did about Mark earlier this year. This is what he was building when they claimed he placed the bomb.
My friend Mark Krause has come all the way from Arkansas to attend Burning Man with his wonderful almost finished creation Icarus.
I’ve know Mark for years though the California Blacksmith Ass. He has made some wonderful smithed sculptures seen at Maker fair for the last few years and has fixed most of the power hammers we smith use in the bay area over the years. Now it’s time to help him out with a financial last push to finish the last leg of his trip. I’m setting him up in my shop for the next few weeks. He needs both skilled help and money. He’s set up a Kickstsrter account here. I will personally vouch for his art and skill and welcome him to his first trip to Blackrock!
A three wheeled vehicle in the shape of a crashed airplane with the wings melted off just beyond fire belching machine guns. This is a scratch built vehicle made almost entirely from recycled or repurposed materials.
Using Icarus as a model, I am attempting to describe the absurdity of warfare. While being held captive, Daedalus made wings for himself and his son to escape from the isle of Crete. Icarus, through youthful exuberance, flew too close to the sun and melted his wax and feather wings only to perish in the sea. Placed into modern context, the superfluous use of technology for warfare, only leads to a similar demise. In my example, the modern flying machine was destroyed by melting off its waxy wings with its own guns. I intend to present an aesthetically pleasing, interactive, object that hopefully will make some people think a little.
Reader Comments
There’s nothing here that proves he did or did not plant a bomb.
If he did not do what he is charged with, please give some information otherwise.
Being an artist doesn’t mean one is incapable of committing stupid actions.
I am the copyright owner of the image you have uploaded to: http://formandreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/n532879681_1649834_2161816.jpg
Please visit the following link:
http://nelsonfoto.blogspot.com/2010/12/regarding-mark-krause-alleged-arkansas.html
Sincerely,
CE Nelson
Nelsonfoto.Com
Member ASMP
thanks for the great shot!
Mark has been a friend for many years.
The allegations against him are absurd.
He is not an angry man and would not make a device to hurt people, much less at a polling place or church.
He’s a gentle, generous , talented artist and a mechanical genius.
If he’d built the device in question,( almost impossible) it would have worked.
If someone had presented him with a mechanical problem, which he loved to puzzle out, he might have helped solve the problem. He would not plant a bomb.
I know the man and will unhesitatingly vouch for him.
sincerely…peter fels
PS
We are going to need his prison stats to contribute to his commissary account..anyone have them?
No great words. As an on/off again itinerant blacksmith I identify with Mark as a person – not just in professional life, but feeling caged by our own freedom. He and I have worked trying to develop and produce a self contained hammer built stateside. I too would vouch for his character and skills without hesitation.
MARK KRAUSE, #40854-086
FDC SEATAC
FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 13900
SEATTLE, WA 98198
here is the only way to send commissary monies:
http://www.bop.gov/inmate_programs/money.jsp
Wow, what a nightmare. To be arrested by ignorant fear-mongers because they don’t understand your art. I have a few friends who were arrested last year because they had a simple propane poofer… some shit town sherriff thought he’d caught the next Osama and charged them with possession of a flamethrower. BIIIIIIIIIG difference.
Reminds me of the british “turn in your neighbors if they have suspicious trash” campaign… in other words, anything you don’t understand is terrorism. I believe Mark is innocent simply on the statement “if he’d have built the bomb, it would have worked”
But if Mark is such an honorable man, why would he store illegal NFA class III firearms on the property of a 70 year old man? It was Mark’s girlfriend who was an informant for the FBI that turned in Mr.Pierce. Mr.Pierce also had an NFA class III firearm that wasn’t legally possessed. But there were NUMEROUS NFA violations owned by Mark on Mr. Pierce’s property. Now this old man will likely spend his last days incarcerated in federal prison.
Brent
Mark would make replica museum quality era 1750 flintlock pistols. Are those the unregistered nfa classIII weapons? Have they been included in the list of weapons as part of the unregistered weapons? The descriptions of his charges make people think of modern weapons. They are pieces of art and should not have been included if they were tho I imagine they were, especially since the disinformation of him being a “home grown right wing terrorist” as was stated in the newspapers. Any one that knew him was immediately shocked, (not at him, but at the F.B.I and the media that that he was even linked to this and then just to stop any questions from people who didn’t know him, was then described as that). That could not be further from the truth. I have never seen any specifics as to the guns that were recovered or what make and model they were. Just “class III unregistered weapons.” Since his arrest I’ve have had a feeling that his 1750 Flintlock pistols are what have been classified as the “illegal weapons”. I believe that Mark believed in the right to own a gun but I cannot imagine him blowing up a polling booth. I did sketches for him and another artist for some metal smithing masks he was working on for a costume party a few years back and consider him a friend and and fellow artist. Anybody other than his Ex who was probably mad at him for leaving her (which would be a conflict of interests/revenge type scenario) point to him? Mark being arrested makes me wonder how many other innocent people have been arrested. Just to have the media tell the population not to worry he was just a “Right-wing Terrorist” or other hogwash. Is there any gas station footage of him in that town or any sort of security camera to place him on the scene? Any sort of Evidence other than a bomb that did not blow up and some guns..which probably included guns he made to replicate pirate era flint-locks? I know everything Mark made worked wonderfully because he is an expert machinist and blacksmith. So yeah if he wanted to blow up a polling booth…it would have. Is it possible that the police are embarrassed because they have no leads to who actually did this and are insisting it’s him to save face?
well forget my comment before, i check up on this page once in a great while to see if anything new has happened or if any of his friends have said anything knew since I’m not all that social these days. I just read about his sentence of 2 years and the bomb charge dropped. It makes me sad that a person can be held that long while the state digs and digs and digs trying to to find ways to make you guilty. This does not tarnish Marks reputation as far as everybody should be concerned. It tarnishes the states reputation. They should really be kissing his ass for this fucked up mistake. Being called a terrorist is a horrible horrible offense. The General Mcarthy era had It’s bologny calling American citizens “COMMUNISTS!.” Sensationlism is a threat to democracy. Well Mark, 50 years from now i bet they put this case in the history books and students will say sheesh “How could people be so crazy back then?”