California Artist Relocates Studio and Lifestyle to South of France

Marques Vickers has noticed that artists can be some of the most resourceful people you'll find. The Benicia sculptor himself has taken advantage of a pile of used Douglas fir pillars a worker left near his studio to build a series of iconic totems.

"It's recycling at its utmost. That's the thing with found objects, "Vickers says. "Fir is one of the harder woods to carve, but you start with what you get."

Vickers, who draws inspiration from totems made by tribes in the Pacific Northwest, is also influenced by sculptors such as Constantin Brancusi, who worked with totemic iconography. But Vickers' use of found materials distinguishes his work.

For one thing, Vickers created "Angel of Ill-Repute" (pictured right, 70 inches tall, $3,500) after realizing that some of the objects he salvaged from an Oakland construction site added up to a parking meter. His studio also happens to be next to the Tosco refinery, where he picks up pipe scraps.

Vickers also creates tabletop steel statues (2 1/2 to 3 feet tall) and fountains. The iconic totems (4 to 10 feet tall) are sealed with Dupont IMROM resin, so they work as indoor or outdoor pieces.

Marques Vickers pieces range from $1,000 to $3,000. Three works are on display at the Vorpal Gallery, 393 Grove Street (between Franklin and Gough streets), San Francisco, (415) 397-9200, or you can contact Vickers at (707) 748-1213 for a studio appointment, or visit www.marquesv.com.

December 29th San Francisco Chronicle Home Section

Benicia sculptor and painter Mark Vickers will be one of the featured artists in an upcoming "Visions 2000" exhibition, September 2-October 2, 1999 at the renowned Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco. Three of his Iconic Totem assemblages, "Modern Amazon", "Angel of Ill-Repute" and "The Viagra Resurrection" will be included in the show focusing on nine additional San Francisco Bay Area artists of distinction. Vickers is also currently exhibiting at the Mark West Winery in Healdsburg and in a designer showcase of recyclized art in South San Francisco.

As a sculptor and painter, Vickers, 41, specializes in steel and mixed media sculpture with a smirk of humor, incorporating found finished objects and multicolored patina and painted surfaces. As a painter, his work is concentrated on figurative and abstract expressionism with textured surface backgrounds. The focus of his work remains barbed humor laced with subtle irony and vulnerability, reminiscent of two other Benicia sculptural influences, Robert Arneson and Manuel Neri.

The Vorpal Gallery, now in its 37th year, represents artists from over 30 countries in a series of rotating exhibitions. Internationally acclaimed for its collection of contemporary and modern Masters such as Dutch graphic master M.C. Escher, the Gallery is located at 393 Grove Street in San Francisco's Civic Center area with a second location in the SoHo area in New York City. With over 20,000 square feet of exhibition space, the gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

Question: What do you get when you cross a travel agent with a welder? Answer: a sculptor with a great package--like Benicia artist Mark Vickers.

Vickers, a Vallejo native and St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School grad, lived in France, traveled the world and started his own travel agency. He was executive director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce before eventually returning to his North Bay roots to become--a welder.

The circuitous route to welding came from three years ago, after Vickers saw two large public art objects on display in Sweden.

"I was traveling in Russia and Scandinavia," Vickers explained. "I was very piqued by the public art in Stockholm. It became one of those things I felt I could do and would do."

But Vickers, with a history in business, did not know how to make sculptures so he signed up for a welding class at Solano College. Soon, the sparks were flying.

"Basically it was all trial and error," he said. "Most people are spectators when it comes to acting out their dreams but I am more pragmatic than that. I didn't even finish the welding class but I learned the basic mechanics of welding."

That was all he needed to locate a welding unit and start building "assemblages." Vickers, who uses sheer will to achieve his goals, likes to explode common myths about art and artists.

"One myth is that you are born as an artist," he said. "Not so. You have to work out your styles and make a thousand mistakes before something works anesthetically."

Although his father was, indeed, an artist, Vickers claims to have inherited none of his dad's artistic talent.

"Frankly, I don't think any of it genetically transferred," Vickers said. "It was not my particular gift. If you look at our work, you'd hardly know we were from the same genes." Thanks to a pragmatic business sense, Vickers said he already had money to bankroll himself as a sculptor "instead playing the role of a starving artist."

"Even so, you don't sell work right away," he said. "It's not a guaranteed source of income. Something like one percent of artists live off their work."

Vickers has been busy in those three years since Stockholm. He's taken up painting, too. He said his paintings are influenced by artists like Mark Rothko and abstract impressionists of the 1950's.

During the day, he creates his assemblages at a Benicia Industrial Park studio with a view of the mothball fleet. Later, he dons his marketing cap and begins making those essential calls to hawk his wares.

"Another myth about art, and why a lot of artists stay undiscovered, is that it's a business and you have to invest your time into selling," Vickers explained. "Most artists are not clued into that. I make 20 to 30 calls a day-to interior decorators, galleries and wineries."

Tenacity does seem to pay off. Vickers recently landed a one-man show of his "Iconic Totems" at the Mark West Winery in Forestville.

"If you build a better mousetrap, you've got to make them aware of it," he said. "This show was part of extensive follow-up and finally securing the venue."

Another Vickerism on art is that gallery owners actually sell artists' work. Don't count on it. "Artists rely on galleries to market their work but gallery owners are just retailers," Vickers said. "There are good and mediocre ones. Most gallery owners are mediocre. They aren't making those 20 to 30 phone calls a day and the artists can't understand why they don't sell. You must stimulate demand."

It all boils down to obsession, he said. Real artists have it and are driven to do it --whatever it is.

Vickers works on several pieces at once, creating assemblages out of discarded car parts, wood and paint -- whatever tickles his fancy. He then seals the entire piece in a DuPont clear coat resin, making the sculpture available for outdoor or indoor use.

Still new to the art scene, Vickers is nonetheless in it for the long haul, building his artist resume from art exhibits throughout the country. He still runs a tour company and operates a screen-printing business to help bankroll his art.

Yet, even with his savvy business sense, there's still an element that will forever stay out of his control.

"The thing about fortune and success in a creative enterprise is that it often comes as a fluke," he said. "It's timing, really, and you can chase the idea of making it via those shows, but more often than not when people do see your work, it's when you least expect it."

Vickers' Iconic totems will be on display throughout the summer and fall season. Mark West Winery is located at 7010 Trenton-Healdsburg Rd. in Forestville.

Native Vallejoan Mark Vickers, 41, didn't start out being an artist.

Yet in the two short years during since he turned his attention to art, he has made some remarkable strides.

His sculpture was acknowledged in the September issue of the nationally distributed interior design trade publication, Interiors and Sources Magazine, and two of his pieces-one sculpture and one painting-are part of the Arts Benicia Exhibit in the Arsenal Building beginning this weekend and running for about a month.

Having come from more of a business than "a traditional art background, per se," Vickers, who runs two other companies and teaches business, finance, marketing and law in addition to his artistic endeavors, was visiting Stockholm, St. Petersburg and Helsinki two years ago, when he discovered that he "was drawn to the steel construction and sculpture." Upon his return, he decided to try his hand at it, and enjoyed it.

"What I was doing well received," Vickers said. "I began to refine my technique and devote more and more time to it. It has become a great passion."

Opening his own studio in Benicia in June of this year, Vickers specializes "primarily in abstract, figurative sculpture made of steel and mixed media, incorporating found finished objects and multicolored patina surfaces, covering various themes."

He works with decorators to "create a certain look" for commercial or residential interiors or contracts to create larger, outdoor pieces for gardens or public places.

While more artists specialize in one medium or another, for example, "most painters don't cross over into sculpting and vice versa," Vickers does both. "I find both equally valuable mediums," he said.

Vickers' ultimate objective is to have his work exhibited in galleries all over the world.

"I would like to be one of the art icons of the new millennium," he said half jokingly, "But there is a long line there. But if you have something to say, and I do, then why not."

In the mean while, Vickers is searching for his own "signature style," and believes that the new series he's working on; a mixed media assemblage sculpture using steel and wood, may wind up being just the thing.

As with most artists, Vickers said his work is "always evolving", and it's progress is available for review by members of the design trade industry, set designers and collectors by appointment, in his studio in the California Industrial Complex, 3840 Industrial Way, Suite B in Benicia.

"The work often speaks more eloquently than anything I can say, "Vickers said.