There comes a point in a comedy actor's career when they decide they want to do some serious acting. You may or may not be a fan of Steve Carell, you may remember such awesome performance as Brick in Anchorman, or Michael Scott in the American The Office. Well, recently I was intrigued by the trailer of a film call Welcome to Marwen. A true story of a victim of a brutal attack who finds therapy in photographing 1\6 scale depictions of a fictional town in Belgium during WW2. After watching the film I decided to investigate further and purchased the above book by the inspiration of the film, Mark Hogancamp. Mark chose such a large scale during the early days of his recovery for mainly practical reasons. His injuries meant he suffered from shaking hands and couldn't initially cope with the smaller scales that regular readers of this blog would expect.
Mark's excellent photographer's eye coupled with his attention to detail makes a book of remarkable scenes. Uniforms are left out in muddy puddles for days to obtain that lived in look. What appears to be a quirky affectation in the movie of his life of Mark constantly pulling along a jeep filled with dolls and soldiers as he goes about the town makes complete sense when explained. He is creating genuine wear on the tyres of the vehicle.
The book covers Marks story, his recovery from the attack and the trial of the perpetrators. It then goes into detail of how Mark made Marwencol and the characters that populate the town. Mark has his own alter ego "Hogie" as well as a population of strong female characters populating the town, some named after friends in his life. When Hogie first arrives he is the one that needs rescuing, like Mark, the town has been his redemption.
 | ||
| Mark and Hogie |
The last part of the book is made up of Mark's picture stories. Almost comic strip type stories, they show the efforts of hours of painstaking work.
Mark has since begun working in smaller scale again and now like the rest of us has his own stack of projects he is working on. I recently had the unique opportunity via the wonders of Facebook live of joining a Q&A with Mark and asking him about his work through his representatives, One Mile Gallery. Mark has recently discovered acrylic paints (he has always used enamels until now.) and he himself has admitted he is always learning new techniques, mostly from Youtube!
Mark is an inspiration to me that crafting and modelling is such a good tool for mental health and although I am no expert at all I am sure I can confidently say he is evidence that it's not just playing with toy soldiers.
If you would like to help out towards Mark's crafting costs you can donate to his fund here.
Mark will be doing another Q&A via Facebook and One Mile Gallery later on this month.
No comments:
Post a Comment