Artwork Description
Heart and Soul Original Pen Ink Drawing Art on 320gsm Handmade South Indian Paper by Modern Pop Art Artist Mark Powell.
Signed 2021 Ballpoint pen drawing on 320 gsm handmade South Indian paper Size: 62cm x 43cm Unframed Drawing is protected by an archival UV protective matt varnish spray 16.9x24.4
Mark Powell – Heart and Soul in Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork
Heart and Soul by British artist Mark Powell is a striking original pen-and-ink drawing executed in 2021 on 320gsm handmade South Indian paper. Measuring 62 x 43 cm (16.9 x 24.4 inches), this piece features a meticulously rendered dead hare and pheasant, hung upside down by string in a composition that instantly evokes classical still life yet pulses with contemporary subtext. Drawn entirely with a ballpoint pen and sealed with archival UV-protective varnish, Powell’s rendering elevates this modest medium to a tool of expressive clarity. Though absent of color or overt graffiti marks, the work stands firmly within the lineage of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork through its subversive detail, its interrogation of mortality, and its commitment to technical excellence layered with conceptual weight. Powell is known for using found paper, vintage documents, and aged materials in his broader practice, though in Heart and Soul, he opts for clean, handmade paper—still retaining the rawness of imperfection in texture. The subject matter draws upon the tradition of vanitas and memento mori, while also referencing the vernacular of field sport culture in a way that challenges sentimentality. This visual honesty—showing death with beauty but no spectacle—is a gesture that resonates deeply with the ethos of street and pop-inflected art. It’s a confrontation with finality, with heritage, and with consumption.
The Ballpoint Pen as a Tool of Dissent and Precision
What separates Powell from traditional fine draftsmen is his unorthodox use of the ballpoint pen—a tool associated more with classroom doodles or blue-collar notebooks than high art. In the context of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork, this choice mirrors the use of spray cans or permanent markers: democratic, accessible, and unpretentious. Every feather, fur strand, and shadow in Heart and Soul is executed with surgical precision using this common tool, elevating it to something sacred. Like a tag scratched into a subway door or a throw-up on a crumbling brick wall, Powell’s marks assert permanence against fragility. The imagery is clean yet jarring—animals that once lived now suspended, motionless. The vertical tension of the ropes holding them reflects themes of control and helplessness, drawing a subtle parallel to how bodies—whether in life or in art—are often manipulated, positioned, and consumed. These symbolic references are aligned with urban artistic movements that seek to expose the hidden systems beneath culture, whether through abstraction, realism, or text-based intervention.
Contemporary Still Life in the Street Pop Art Narrative
Still life traditionally served as a showcase of abundance, fragility, and temporal beauty. In Powell’s hands, that tradition is disrupted, made raw. The careful rendering of animals is not a romantic homage—it is a meditation on stillness, loss, and what it means to hold onto something after it has passed. By choosing subject matter often glorified in upper-class sporting culture and presenting it without drama or glorification, Powell reclaims the narrative. This reclamation mirrors the objectives of many street artists who challenge dominant visual histories by injecting alternate perspectives. There is a quiet radicalism in Heart and Soul—a refusal to decorate or dilute. The honesty of the composition, the weight of the medium, and the choice of paper all work together to create an artwork that is as much about process and material as it is about meaning. This approach reflects Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork’s core value: that beauty, rebellion, and reflection can emerge from the simplest of materials, when handled with vision.
Mark Powell’s Position in Modern Pop Draftsmanship
Though not a graffiti artist in the traditional sense, Mark Powell’s aesthetic and thematic sensibilities place him in close proximity to the conceptual edge of street art. His commitment to drawing as an act of observation and confrontation, along with his use of humble materials and deadpan subject matter, places his work within the wider umbrella of street-conscious fine art. Heart and Soul does not shout, but it never looks away. It is an elegy rendered in ink—a ballpoint requiem that speaks with the same depth as murals, stencils, and protest posters inked on alley walls.
