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Jennie Rhodes
Torre del Mar
Friday, 27 September 2024, 12:39
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Who is Elvis? That's the question that started Mark Dickens' lifelong passion for music and art and the result is now being exhibited in the tourist office in Torre del Mar.
Mark and his wife Jennifer have lived in the Axarquía for 20 years, having fallen in love with the area while visiting friends who had a house in Cómpeta. They eventually settled in Sayalonga 18 years ago where Mark has had time to pick up his paint brushes again after a long career in the worlds of graphic design and teaching in England and Wales.
Mark, 70, is originally from Scotland which is where he first discovered Elvis. "Where were you when you first heard the name Elvis Presley?" The artist asks the question in a book he has made which follows the evolution of his artistic work from that first 'meeting' with his hero.
"I would have been about six years old, playing in the street with one of my friends. A boy came out to join us, his family had just moved from California," Mark explains. "We started talking about music and then he mentioned Elvis," he says. The boy from California couldn't believe that his new friend from Scotland had never heard of the great American rock 'n' roll legend.
Of course, Mark was listening to music that was beginning to emerge much closer to home, from Manchester and Liverpool and it would be the start of a long love affair combining his two passions.
Having shown an artistic talent from an early age - like many young children, he admits that one of his earliest works was decorating his parents' walls (they were none too pleased). Years later he got a place at the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) where he obtained a BA (Honours) in Graphic Design.
After graduating, Mark worked for three graphic design companies and in fact one was behind some iconic images - it was the first company "to put an image of the Guinness bottle on a PVC apron" and screen prints of "various cartoon characters like the Pink Panther and Snoopy".
It is also where he met Jennifer, a fashion textile designer. Before coming to Spain Mark worked as a lecturer in Graphic Design at a school in North Wales and Jennifer also worked at the same place teaching fashion and textiles.
Moving to Spain allowed Mark to develop the ideas he'd been saving up but not had time to do anything about in the UK "because of working for other people". He says, "I had my own ideas but not enough time to do anything about them, so coming here was an opportunity to start."
Mark says that his work moved into different areas after moving here and that he started painting landscapes as he was inspired by the colour, light and scenery on his front doorstep.
Walking into the exhibition Between Rock and Landscapes in Torre del Mar's tourist office, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is work by two completely different artists. On one side is the pop art-cum-album-cover style of his musical inspiration, with some very familiar faces (Michael Jackson, Bob Marley and of course, Elvis).
On the right are also some very familiar 'faces'; those of La Maroma, Malaga province's highest mountain, which at 2,064 metres above sea level, looks over the Axarquía.
It was a chance visit to an optician in Torre del Mar that led to the exhibition happening. Mark explains the optician liked his work and mentioned it to the town's deputy mayor, who invited Mark to exhibit.
He has had a number of exhibitions in the area before this one, including at the Axarquía hospital in Torre del Mar and the Museo Morisco in Sayalonga.
As well as the exhibition, Jennifer has been encouraging him to do something with the book he has been working on which looks at the evolution of rock and roll music. Mark has unpicked that early question about Elvis and looked back through the history of American popular music, taking his research right back to the 19th century.
The exhibition is on until 19 October from 10am to 2pm (every day) and 4pm to 8pm (every day except Sunday). Facebook - Mark Dickens Art.
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