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Hernando Today

A Passion For Painting

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By GEOFF FOX

Media General News Service

Published: August 24, 2008

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"He's always been really creative," she said. "I didn't have classes with him in high school, but I know a lot of people who did, and they always said he was always sketching something. He would draw cartoons. You give Mark anything and he can draw it.

"In the dog kennels, he opened up a dog encyclopedia and just went to town."

He's Been Everywhere, Man

Hannah also is known locally - and internationally - as a guitarist with the once-thriving rockabilly band Skinny McGee and his Mayhem Makers, which featured Shawn Gravitt as singer-bassist Skinny McGee and harmonica player Chris Bell.

Until an amicable, self-imposed hiatus a couple of years ago, the band often played around the Tampa Bay area, from The Osceola Tavern in Dade City to Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa to venues on upscale Davis Islands.

In February 2004, the band recorded at legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tenn., made famous in the 1950s by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, as well as Johnny Cash, whom Gravitt often was said to sound like.

"We played in Orlando and did a couple shows in Vegas and L.A.," Hannah said. "We went to Amsterdam a couple times, Barcelona and did a European tour through Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy."

Hannah said he sometimes misses playing in the band, although he is still good friends with Bell and Gravitt.

"I'm just glad I was able to do all that stuff when we did," Hannah said. "I don't even know if we could afford to go over there now. Those were some great times, man - a good way to spend my 30s."

Now in his early 40s, Hannah has been married seven years to Jenny, once Skinny McGee's self-proclaimed biggest fan. A massage therapist and yoga enthusiast, she now runs Hannah's Healing Hands in Dade City.

Mark said he needed his wife's muscle-soothing powers after completing a Sistine Chapel-style mural. That was on a ceiling above an outdoor walkway at the Lake Jovita home where he painted the movie posters. The project involved scaffolding and bending his head at odd angles for long hours.

"It was the first time I ever painted cherubs before," he said. "If I have to learn to do some kind of ancient brush stroke from a painting from before Christ, I'll do my homework and figure it out."

The Hollywood homage also required ample research.

A poster of "High Noon," starring Gary Cooper, was just to the left of "Chinatown," which was next to a "Jaws" reproduction.

Mad Magazine Inspired Him

A bottle of IBC root beer in his hand, Hannah said he was painting it all free-hand.

"You basically just look at a better picture, get it under a good light and look at the color breakdown," he said. "I have to break it all down like a jigsaw puzzle."

On the other side of the small home theater were completed renditions of posters for "Gone With the Wind," "The Godfather," "The Seven-Year Itch," "Vertigo" and "Casablanca."

Other than Nicholson, Hannah said Humphrey Bogart's face was the most difficult to reproduce.

"Looked like Boris Karloff was in there," he said.

Other posters included "Rocky," "Citizen Kane," "Dr. No" and "Annie Hall."

As a child, Hannah said he drew artistic inspiration from Mad magazine.

No longer a Mayhem Maker, Hannah continues to make music, often jamming with a band that changes names often.

Hannah said he is working on a song titled "Skunk Ape" about the creature said to roam Florida's swamps.

"I love that stuff," he said.

For information about Hannah's work, call (352) 467-0664 or e-mail him at rockinruby@msn.com.

Keyword: Everyday People, to watch a video of Mark Hannah at work. Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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