Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing) | Mark Davies

Time of My Life, a limited edition giclee print on paper by storytelling artist Mark Davies from Dirty Dancing. From the 2020 'Lost In Hollywood 3' collection.

This is a really beautiful piece and the idea was to do something very different to get a balanced collection. It’s inspired by the concept of the character coming back to reminisce about the memories that they have from that particular moment. The piece totally changed with the fact that one of the key actors, Patrick Swayze passed away several years back so that took the piece to somewhere completely different.

For me it was always going to be about ‘the lift’, it was always such an iconic moment from the film and such a beautiful image and that could have been the piece itself, to focus purely on that but I wanted to do something different so it ended up being just a small part of the image but a massive part of it.

So, what you see is the point when Johnny and Baby have gone down to the lake to practice, you see his car just in the shadows of the forest, any way I can shoehorn a car into a scene and there’s something really cool about it just poking out. There’s a dark element to the film in small places which I feel is why the woodland works really nicely in complete contrast to the beautiful, dramatic piercing light that is coming through. Once you know the underlying concept with what I have tried to do with this piece I feel it makes what the light represents even more powerful. The subtle details of the falling feathers and the dove makes it really pretty.

The movie is really quirky and the great thing from watching the film and making notes is you are writing down all of these lines that may be really small details but you try and bring them into the piece in quite a big way, so, for example the hen! That was given as a prize at Kellerman’s and it may have just been on screen for a split second but then becomes a prominent part of the image and leaves you trying to decipher what the hell it is doing there!

There is a lot to seek out, it was one where the overriding impact of the setting and having that lovely recognition for such an iconic actor’s passing has resulted in a truly wonderful piece. Hopefully many can find comfort in the sentiment when we think back to when things where very different and relive a special moment, amplifying all of those memories.