Local artist Mark Wayman unveils new line of t-shirts

BY REGGE EPISALE
Correspondent

“Live Life Unplugged,” the latest line of t-shirts designed by local artist, Mark Wayman, contains six original designs of outdoor activities that people do and love without the ever present technology we have today.

The Wayman designs feature nature scenes in silhouette and include the activities of golfing, playing guitar, snowboarding, reading, fishing and kayaking, all with the motto, “Live Life Unplugged.”

Mark is an artist, although he hesitates to call himself that. He says when he thinks of artists he thinks of Picasso or Turner or Rembrandt. But he is an artist, and his screen printing business, Harvey Shirt Company, on Singer Road in Montrose, is his studio.

The shop is full of t-shirts, some with simple logos supplied by companies that just needed shirts printed, but most with original designs that capture the eye and imagination. His most current art work is usually displayed on the shirt he’s wearing, and right now that will most likely be a design from “Live Life Unplugged.”

Mark has been drawing since he can remember. “In fifth or sixth grade kids in my class would pay me a quarter to draw something for them,” he said.
He took art and technical drawing classes all through high school, and a mail-order course for about one year.

Although he dreamed of going to college to study engineering or technical drawing, as the youngest of eight children in a family where no one had gone to college, he didn’t know how to make that a reality.

After graduation he joined the Marine reserves and started working odd jobs, finally settling on carpet and vinyl flooring installation.

But he always kept drawing.

When people saw his illustrations, they would tell him, “You should do that for a living,” so when he saw an advertisement for an assistant artist at Chitra Publications, a quilting magazine publisher in Montrose, he took his portfolio and applied for the position.

Desk top publishing was just coming out and getting big but Chitra’s layout artists weren’t capable of creating pen and ink illustrations. They gave him a chance. Within a year they gave him his own magazine.

Mark worked for Chitra Publications, then as a design artist at Paper Magic, a greeting card company in Scranton, and as the Art Director of Team World in Binghamton, N.Y.

During those 20 years he bought his first screen printing press and started designing his own shirts and taking on screen printing jobs for other people. His hunger for creative outlet kept him creating original art work. He finally left Team World to work in his own business full-time.

Mark’s original company was Studio MD. He took any art work that came his way: desktop publishing, website design, logos, business cards, screen printing, and always custom designs.

After his father passed he renamed the company to Harvey Shirt Company in honor of his father, and started restricting his work mainly to screen printing apparel.

He has many repeat customers in the area and enjoys finding new ways to promote their special events and businesses.

He has also kept looking for a line of shirts he could market as his own.

As an avid music lover and acoustic guitar performer, Mark originally thought he would do a line of shirts related to music. He designed a shirt showing a person playing a guitar under a tree. Once he had that designed, his imagination started coming up with more activities people love that don’t include technology: golfing, fishing, snowboarding, kayaking, and reading.

He has plans for more. The ideas keep coming. Meanwhile, his “Live Life Unplugged” are for sale on his store website. Each shirt is a work of art and carries a clear message. Check them out at http://www.harveyshirt.com or his Facebook page: https://facebook.com/harveyshirt.

Shirts can be ordered through the website, paid for by credit card or PayPal, and usually ship in one or two days. Retail stores who are interested in carrying the shirts can email Mark atmark@harveyshirt.com.

If you want to give a gift that’s really unique, this is it.