Mark Evans creates ‘jewelry for walls’

Story and Photographs by CYNTHIA TRAINA

In a stylishly appointed Victorian just steps from Fillmore Street, with opera drifting through rooms overflowing with art, Mark Evans spends his days transforming salvaged frames into convex mirrors encrusted with dazzle that sell for thousands of dollars. In rooms that double as both studio and gallery, he blends collecting and craftsmanship, transforming the ornate mirrors into opulent creations he calls “jewelry for walls.”

The mirrors are set in antique frames gilded with gold leaf and encrusted with crystals, minerals, cast resin and rods of Murano glass. The frames, sourced from antique shops, thrift stores and eBay, must be round and deep enough to accommodate the convex mirrors, which Evans buys from industrial suppliers. A local woodworker reinforces the frames so that he can drill and build with confidence.

His mirrors are brought to life with natural stones — rose quartz, lapis lazuli, Brazilian crystals, Burmese minerals — and colorful resins melted and molded in his studio. The Venetian glass rods are trimmed and sanded by hand. Each fragment is added individually. It’s a process that can take weeks, depending on the complexity of the design. Once Evans settles on a design, he drills a hole in the center of each piece to firmly attach it to the base, setting the stones to radiate outward.

He sources his crystal collection at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, the largest in the world. “You can get lost if you’re not careful,” he says of the sprawling fair. “I go in with focus. I know what I’m looking for.” He often travels to Tucson with his Bush Street neighbor Victoria Dunham, owner of Hi Ho Silver on Fillmore.

Evans’ artistic interests extend beyond mirrors to lenticular art — pieces that use special plastic lenses to display different images depending on the viewing angle. These works often feature historical figures, with the shifting perspective revealing elements of their lives. Evans, a self-proclaimed history buff, has also created 42 portraits of the Bourbon Dynasty.

His downstairs studio is a combination art gallery and workshop, the walls covered with paintings and mirrors. Boxes of crystals and minerals crowd the tables. His office holds more than 2,000 art books collected at museum bookshops around the world. Upstairs, he lives with his partner, Davide Vieira-Leal, and his schnauzer, Jack, who’s frequently seen walking with Evans on Fillmore Street. Their restored Victorian in the Bush Street–Cottage Row Historic District is filled with treasures from a lifetime of collecting: spheres, paintings and artifacts from travels abroad.

Before turning to mirrors, Evans built a career in decorative artwork and custom murals. With his late partner, Charley Brown, he ran a wallpaper and design company called Evans + Brown, producing murals and other large-scale projects for hotels and restaurants, including 60 P.F. Chang’s locations. Their work is in venues as varied as Deauville and Disney, along with the Monadnock Building on Market Street, Stanford University’s School of Education and the San Jose and San Francisco public libraries.

Evans’ mirrors caught the eye of Roger Thomas, the celebrated designer behind Wynn hotels and casinos. 

“I have included Mark’s extraordinary mirrors in all of my interiors since he started making them,” Thomas said. “I believe all interiors should include surprise, delight and joy — plus a little bit of once upon a time. Mark’s collectible treasures provide exactly this.”

Today the mirrors are sold through design showrooms in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. They range from $2,000 to $12,000 and are most often purchased by interior decorators who, like Thomas, are seeking bold statements for their clients.

Evans is careful in how he characterizes what he makes. “I don’t call it fine art,” he says. “It’s fine decorative art. It’s meant to be lived with.”

To see more creations by Mark Evans, visit theartofmarkevans.com.