Lost In Hollywood X Panaramic by Mark Davies

Available as a fantastic Limited Edition Print.

All Artwork is signed by the artist and includes a Certificate of Authenticity. 

MARK SAYS:

To celebrate the tenth anniversary since first creating my ‘Lost in Hollywood’ collection, I wanted to do something dramatic and that captured a cracking array of many of the movies that I have taken on and retold in my own unique way. I had previously created this type of ‘mash up’ scenes over recent years with the likes of ‘Spielberg’s Hollywood’, ‘Tarantinos Hollywood’ and ‘Exit Light, Enter Night’ and not only did I really enjoy working on them, but they all have sold in such high numbers. It’s much harder than taking on one movie on its own as you are trying to unify so many elements and individual qualities from so many different genres and characters, but I love challenging myself from a technical angle.

You may not know but the title ‘Lost in Hollywood’ was born from happening to listen to an obscure song from the American metal band ‘System of a Down’ over ten years ago. It an eerie song by an intense band who I had been listening to regularly whilst camped in the studio working on my complex ‘Storyteller’ pieces, it just seemed to fit and hold me where I needed to be and amplify the emotions that I was injecting into each scene. The song is one of their lesser-known tracks, but I loved it as it reflects on people who move to Hollywood for glory but end up impoverished, addicted, or trapped in exploitative work.

So, what we see in this piece is that moment when your world changes, a moment that you could have missed by simply turning on a different path or arriving at a different time but instead you stumble across the unthinkable! Set within the Hollywood hills and on a cracking road and under a dramatic sky with the ocean to the left of you, it is the scene for silent chaos. What on earth would you do?! Just imagine! What I wanted to do was to show this point where such a vast array of characters, vehicles and craft from many of the movies that I have taken on, appear either static or coming towards you, where they all converge in stunning effect.

Once I had built the landscape, added in the ocean and created the burning sky above, it was the AT-AT Walker that first went in, and with such powerful results, I could have stopped there but no chance! It just fuelled my fire to keep building! It was certainly no easy task to try and unify The Millennium Falcon, the ship from E.T and the ‘balloon house’ from UP! Oh, and that is before we move to the ground below! The amount of detail here is insane and I won’t list out all of it as I want you to go seek it out but there are so many parts that I love. When you create this type of scene, it can easily just end up as a ‘Where’s Wally?’ type of scene with nothing behind it. Instead, I wanted to inject some connections between the characters. This played out through featuring the Joker walking towards you, transfixed as he is flanked by a solitary wolf. The controlled rage burns so vividly here! By introducing ‘Wolverine’ striding towards him and ‘Tony Montana’ pointing his gun, whilst a bemused and dazed ‘Mickey O’Neil’ sits cross-legged watching on with his ‘Dag’, it shows the battle of the egos playing out. Who do you think out of everyone here is the most dangerous and unhinged?!

This piece could have run on forever, but I had to ensure that the impact was not diluted down, so I had to hold back much of the detail for another day, and that’s a good thing! It’s crazy how many movie-inspired works I have created over the past ten years, do you have a favourite? I think it’s impossible for me to call. Thank you for your amazing support throughout and here’s to the next decade! This is certainly not all folks!