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THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST<br />
This month, local artist Mark Ellender is back<br />
with his third <strong>Viva</strong> cover, illustrating our theme of<br />
‘independence’. “It’s about going against the tide,<br />
going out on your own, doing things under your<br />
own steam,” he says. “Have you seen the speech<br />
that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford? It’s fantastic – in<br />
a nutshell, it’s all about following your heart and<br />
striking out on your own. I wanted to somehow<br />
put across that entrepreneurial spirit – ‘everything<br />
else is going on over there, but I’m going this way’<br />
– I think that really fits in <strong>Lewes</strong>.”<br />
We agree, and we love the eclectic mix of images<br />
that Mark’s covers always bring: the Harvey’s<br />
chimney puffing away on top of the man’s hat; the<br />
fish, quite literally, out of water. “A lot of my work<br />
starts as a stream of consciousness,” he explains.<br />
“I just sketch and sketch, and whatever comes out<br />
of that will or won’t find its way into a painting.”<br />
One theme which tends to rear its head fairly frequently<br />
in Mark’s work is Easter Island. “I love<br />
Pacific island art and it’s almost impossible for<br />
that not to show up in everything I do. The masks,<br />
the statues – I remember being struck by them as<br />
a kid, seeing them in National Geographic and just<br />
thinking they were amazing. I’m just absolutely<br />
fascinated by the mystery of how the devil they<br />
got there – some of them are four metres tall!”<br />
Mark finally got to make his trip of a lifetime to<br />
Easter Island back in October; he appeared in the<br />
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