Vanity Fair features Jon Sarkin and Mullen’s new art installation

Usually when we have work in Vanity Fair, it’s an ad for one of our clients. But this week, the online version of the magazine has a story on Jon Sarkin, the artist we recently commissioned to interpret the word “unbound,” our new tagline, which describes our recently re-invented way of working and creating. The article relates Sarkin’s stroke, ending his career as a chiropractor, and the remarkable journey that followed with this paragraph.

After his stroke, Sarkin was gripped by an overwhelming artistic drive. And since that fateful day, he has not stopped compulsively producing artwork. Creating paintings, collages, and sculptural works that are inspired by the likes of Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, Sarkin blends cutout images, painting, words, and song lyrics to create mesmerizing and often mysterious pieces. Sarkin has become not only a medical sensation who appeared on ABC’s Medical Mysteries but also a commercial success: Tom Cruise has bought the rights to his life story, and some of his pieces command prices in the tens of thousands of dollars.

It goes on to describe the finished piece as classic Jon Sarkin: it’s covered with colorful loose strokes, cutout faces, and words that evolve for the viewer after multiple visits. Culled from places in his mind even he cannot explain, the mural’s words and images include a version of the Jack Kerouac quote, “Fame is like old papers blowing down main street,” and a painted-over picture of iconic rocker Van Morrison. Some things are better left unexplained, and Sarkin’s newest work is no exception.

Watching Sarkin work was as incredible as the painting. Imagery would be there one day and gone the next. Jon would often grab an employee and discuss ideas for how to best portray inspiration, or hope, or the future. How those conversations influenced him, I’m not sure. But he seems to embrace stimuli from everywhere.

Once during the project, when the painting had changed dramatically from the previous day, I asked Jon how he knew when the work was done. “It’s done next Tuesday,” he told me. “You’ve given me a deadline. So that’s when it’s finished.”

Leads me to believe a Jon Sarkin painting is never finished. You, the viewer, have to complete it in your own mind.