Crimson and Gold Connection; Mark Switlik

Hello and welcome to the Crimson and Gold connection. I am Michael Karin. Today our special guest is Mark Switlick, an artist that graduated from Pittsburgh State University and has recently put his mark on a national park. Mark, how are you doing today? You're not a good place. Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's a pleasure to have you, especially being an alum of the university. So you originally are from Parsons, Kansas and graduated from PSU and have done a lot of mural art or large pieces of work like on the side of building. So what exactly got you into that? Well, we're going to a community college in a bit county there in Parsons and I took some art classes and I got a chance to do my first mural. When I was a freshman in college and then I decided, hey, I like painting big and that's where I wanted to be. So that's where it started right there in Parsons. That's pretty exciting. So what are some of your favorite pieces that you've done over the year? Yeah, probably the Pittsburgh State one, I would think. And then a lot of my other ones, believe it or not, have been torn down just recently because economic development goes along.

The mural only lasts like 10, 15 years and then somebody's changing the building and stuff. Oh, absolutely. So how big exactly is the centennial piece that you did on Mitchell Hall here at Pittsburgh State? It's something that's really odd. It's like an odd number like 41 feet high by 40 feet. So it's real almost square. So is that a normal size for a mural that you would regularly paint? Yeah, I prefer to do this. I really enjoy the big ones. I like to work in the large. We've had a lot of physical output. It's a lot of brain twisters on how to draw something that big. So it's just a good challenge always up for it. Absolutely. Well, that's fantastic. So exactly how long would a piece, I guess, of that size take you to produce? I think the one in Pittsburgh, I think I worked because of the weather. I think I worked four months and off for the winter and came back for another three or something like that. That's what I'm guessing.

It was like 10 years ago. Oh, that hold me to it. Yeah, no, absolutely. That's, I mean, still that is amazing. So the main reason why we are talking to Mark today is he had her chance to restore an iconic sign in Yosemite National Park. So Mark, could you tell us about this job and exactly what you did for this sign? Well, I was working as a seasonal out here at the Yosemite National Park and my job with the painter, I was helping restore a lot of these old buildings and structures. Repainting inside and outside of them and they asked me to look at doing this repainting sign. So that's how I got kind of started doing that. So that's how I got started already working as a painter and I let people know that I do artwork too. So one thing led to another and that thing needed painting. So I put the job on. So exactly how long did it take you to, I guess, refinished the sign? Well, it was a couple of months because I started in March and it was still frosty in the mountains. It was like a

6,000 elevation. So it was still cold and I had to drive an hour each way every day. And then at the tourist season opened up and people, I might get stopped 30 times a day just to take, let people take their pictures. That certainly took a lot of pictures for people. Did anybody want you to pose with them in the sign? Yeah, I kind of find out. It was kind of a good thing to find out. Just been there that long that all these people, some of them, you know, they're off all around the world. Some of them are lived here, been getting their family picture taken to find that sign for 30 years. You know, I'm in there having for 30 years. So they were happy to see it being repainted for sure. Oh, absolutely, especially being in one of our national parks. So what exactly does redoing a sign in a national park mean to you rather than the other work that you have done? Well, I take all my job serious, but it wasn't until I actually got work and I saw how big an

icon it was. And then I started to realize this is probably the, unless I get super famous, this might be the most photographed piece of work I ever did or will do. So there's people around the world taking pictures of this and putting on a Facebook. So yeah, it's pretty high mark the hint. No pun intended. So when it comes to painting murals, I can't imagine that, you know, there's a whole lot of people who actually do this job. So do you get jobs like, you know, the Yosemite National Park by people approaching you? Or is it something where you actually reached out for them? Well, when I worked for Phoenix Times, I was a downtown Phoenix artist at that time, and I had, I had, I had, took the idea to owner of the sun. So most of the time that's how I get my work, although people do find me and, and I have a website, they do find me and stuff like that,

but when all the, I had so much competition from the digital, large format digital plants that it makes harder these days because all the corporate stuff with the money is, is pretty well taken up by digital plants. Absolutely. I get that. So I briefly had got to visit your website to see just previous works of art that you've done, and I saw some pretty cool stuff. You've worked on movie sets and all sorts of things. Is that, is that's right? Yes, I did. It was a really good way to get some artwork to do is before the green screen and the blue screen, you know, every time somebody needed an agency, for instance, or tribal agencies, they want to go to Hawaii, they'd have to rent a studio, a production company, they'd bring me in, I'd paint a picture of Hawaii, and they'd stand in front of it, but now that's all computerized with photographs and stuff. So that took away a lot of stuff even in on the movies. Still got some set painting, but nothing, nothing, the scenic

art is pretty well green screened in now. So yeah, you just made it tougher, or do you use all kinds of ways, but now I think most of the money in the art is made in the video games and stuff like that. Alrighty, Mark. Well, thank you very much for joining us on the Crimson and Gold Connection today. I really certainly appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with us. Yeah, I was going to say something about the older people who fixed very much. I might remember way back in 1976. I did a couple of my girls around Southeast Kansas, about three, I guess. Copperville Parsons are also legal, and even they're at Picksburg on that hotel right by the first time in the Picksburg on the east, or west, I guess. I had an old spirit of 76 painting on there, I don't know if anybody would remember that. That was a long time ago. Oh, man. The timing is right as a 200 anniversary of the United States. Absolutely. Well, it definitely looks like you're

putting your mark all over the place. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a long, a long thing. We're a great thing to be doing for me, so I enjoy it. Well, that's great to hear. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks a lot for having me on your show. Appreciate very much.