FAVI DUBO

With the turn of the century and a new millennium, T. Mark Cole’s work was evolving quite radically towards the abstract. As with all artists who work long enough in their particular field of art, it evolves and/or morphs into something different from whence it started. While growing, the artist still maintains certain passions in their work and still continues to create in their own unique style.

With a passion from an early age for architecture and growing up surrounded by artwork amongst a family that boasted four generations of artists, an appreciation developed for all forms and styles of art. Always observing everything in a consistently changing landscape, Mark found his “Happy Place” with drawing. After four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), he became a landscape painter with some kind of architectural composition or structure in it.

Working on architectural miniatures, on commission, for private clients led to him being hired to document historic architectural structures on Mt. Desert Island for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. This was followed by several years of lecturing and writing chapters on historic architecture, including two books about Stone Harbor, New Jersey where he spent childhood summers. While the books were being published, Mark also began building dioramas for the Brandywine River Museum, bringing paintings of Andrew Wyeth to life in 3-D.

It has also been a lifetime of observing that has allowed him to hone his skills as a successful art instructor, constantly being sought out to critique artwork by students and fellow artists, alike.

His new-found passion for abstract art didn’t seem to mesh well with his established reputation for traditional works. But his life-long love for architecture and its profound inspiration fueled his creative fires and he began a prolific period of creation.

With enough works and confidence to begin showing his abstract creations, Mark did what any artist looking to showcase another side of his talent would do: he created a nom de plume. Writers do it all the time, why not artists?

He wanted a name that would sound international and at the same time androgynous, so as not to pigeonhole the painter into any one corner or any one place. This led to the first name, “Favi,” a variation on the names “Fabio” and “Fabia,” and then the surname of “Dubo” as a nod to the drink Dubonnet, a long-time favorite of the artist’s cherished mother….

And so, Favi Dubo was born!

For nearly 8 years, Favi Dubo remained an elusive figure that began to gain recognition in the Philadelphia area, often communicating through his friend, T. Mark Cole!

It was finally around 2011 when Favi was honored with an award that Mark finally came forward revealing the story behind his nom de plume.

In the Summer of 2015, the artwork of T. Mark Cole and Favi Dubo began to appear on stages in the Philadelphia area. Both his traditional work as T. Mark Cole and his abstracts were used as scenic design in productions of Good People and Boeing, Boeing.

In 2017, Mark began working as a scenic designer with his debut stage design of a New Orleans Garden for a production of Suddenly Last Summer in Philadelphia at Old Academy Players. This would be the first of several stage designs at Old Academy, including an Italian Palazzo for the World Premiere of A Song I Forgot to Sing (2018), and a Fire Island Beach House (complete with swimming pool) in Lips Together, Teeth Apart (2019). He will return to Old Academy in 2020 with the Illinois Farm House, frozen in time, from the Pulitzer Prize winning drama Buried Child.

In addition to his own set design work, he has also worked with other set designers as a painting scenic designer. Those collaborations include: The Laramie Project (2017), Other Desert Cities (2018), The Children’s Hour (2018), The Nutcracker (2018), and Next to Normal (2019).

From 1987 to 2013, The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA hosted a special exhibit every other Holiday Season to showcase the extensive jewelry collection of Betsy Wyeth as inspired by the iconic artwork of her husband, world renown artist Andrew Wyeth. The Wyeths employed the artistic skills of local jeweler, Donald Pywell, to create intricate and elaborate pieces of jewelry in gold, silver, platinum and precious stones.

In the late 1980s, Betsy Wyeth agreed to loan pieces of her private collection to be displayed in custom, miniature dioramas created by local artist, T. Mark Cole.

The images shown here are of the displays containing each individual jewelry item or set of jewelry pieces, along with the original Wyeth painting that inspired both…

The resulting displays became a biannual Holiday Tradition for over a quarter of a century.

Since his creation in the early 2000s, Favi Dubo’s style continues to evolve and grow. His medium began with 3-D sculpture and has since moved on to traditional canvas, cradled boards that give an illusion that the piece is floating, thick industrial corrugated cardboard, and even unconventional material like denim.

During the Fall of 2008, T. Mark Cole decided he would do something special for his annual holiday cards. So instead of a traditional card celebrating the festive time of year, Favi painted one of his abstracts on a piece of paper, cut it into pieces and mounted each piece onto thick card stock. The cards were sent out at the end of 2008 to friends and family.

The following year, one of the recipients was Rob Rosiello, a NYC based playwright. At first it was thought to be a small Favi Painting, but Mark quickly pointed out it was a piece of a larger painting that had been cut apart and sent out as Christmas Cards. “Why don’t you have a Christmas Party next year to reunite all the pieces from this year?” Rosiello mused then suddenly exclaimed, “I’m going to use this in a play!” That next year he wrote A SONG I FORGOT TO SING.

The play would go on to have two staged readings in NYC and Philadelphia before having its world premiere in 2018, featuring a larger Fav painting aptly entitled, “A Song I Forgot to Sing.”

The NYC playwright would go on to marry the Philadelphia artist and collaborate on several projects in the process.

The annual Favi Christmas Card has been a holiday staple every year since 2008, with the exception of 2014 due to the devastating fire that destroyed T. Mark Cole’s studio. Luckily, most of Favi’s works were housed at another location and escaped damage. And like the proverbial Phoenix Rising from the Ashes, Mark and Favi rallied and the Favi Christmas Card returned in 2015.

The man behind Favi Dubo is Pennsylvania based artist, T. Mark Cole.  He has been a fine arts instructor for over 30 years and spent several summers working for the State of Maine, cataloguing historic homes on Mount Desert Island.  This also led him to be a contributing author in the book, MOUNT DESERT: AN INFORMAL HISTORY. He would go on to co-author two books on the history of Stone Harbor, NJ with Arcadia Publishing.  

Since creating Favi Dubo, Mark’s art career has taken off in many different and exciting directions.

Mark was one of 50 artists commissioned by ABSOLUT Vodka in 2012 and 2013 to participate in The ABSOLUT Masterpiece Program, a nationally juried art show and competition. 

Mark is a member of the Chester County Art Association (CCAA) and InLiquid.com, and has been a member of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), and The National Trust.  For 30 years he was the curator for The Brandywine Museum’s Biennial Holiday Exhibit of Betsy Wyeth’s Jewelry as inspired by the Art of Andy Wyeth. 

Mark's recent theatrical design work includes set designs for: Suddenly Last Summer, A Song I Forgot to Sing (World Premiere), and Lips Together, Teeth Apart.  Scenic designs include: Next to Normal, Other Desert Cities, The Children’s Hour, The Laramie Project, and The Nutcracker.

Mark studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), holds a BFA from West Chester University and has studied Fine Art throughout Europe. 

While Favi Dubo is the main attraction of this website, the man behind the name is also showcased throughout!

Before there was Favi Dubo, there was T. Mark Cole. His work varied from sketches to oil paintings, pastel drawings inspired by vintage postcards to set designs for the theater.

As Favi has continued to grow and evolve, so has the work and styles of T. Mark Cole.

In the early 1990s, Mark found himself spending a great deal of time inside during some of the more brutal winter months. During this time, he rediscovered many color tinted postcards he had received from his grandmother while growing up.

It was also during this time he also rediscovered and grew fond of pastels. Combining the two newly rediscovered passions, he began to create larger pastel replicas of the smaller color tinted cards, and the Postcards Series of Pastels was born.

To date, Mark has created over 50 of the postcard inspired pastels. Those shown below are a sampling of the overall collection…

The love of architecture and all things vintage came to fruition with the co-authoring of two books on Stone Harbor, New Jersey and one that featured the historic homes of Mount Desert Island in Maine. The latter was a job that he held for several summers in the 1980s for the state of Maine.

In 2012 & 2013, ABSOLUT commissioned artists nationwide to create bottles that reflected the feel and look of the cities in which the artists resided. This continued a time honored tradition of partnering with artists that goes back to Herring and Warhol. The completed 4 foot resin bottles were showcased in LGBT bars and nightclubs around the country and were voted upon in an online juried show. Favi was commissioned to design a Fire Island Bottle in 2012 that was displayed at the Fire Island Ascension Beach Party the same year.

In 2013 he was again commissioned to create a bottle inspired by the ABSOLUT Cosmo Cocktail. This bottle was displayed Summer 2013 at Woody’s, a popular and long standing LGBT Nightclub in the heart of Center City Philadelphia.

The 2013 Cosmo Bottle was sent to Twist Nightclub in Miami Beach as part of a season-end party celebrating the ABSOLUT Masterpiece program. It joined bottles from around the country are were on display for a special one night only ABSOLUT event.

Much of the artwork on this website is available for purchase.

If interested, please contact Mark/Favi directly at mercheval@verizon.net. Please enter LOOKING TO PURCHASE ARTWORK in the subject line.

If Set and Scenic Design Work is also of interest, you can also email and please enter SET DESIGN WORK in the subject line.