Sunderland artist's striking Marilyn Monroe portrait - made entirely of screws
The Sunderland artist has immortalised a number of famous faces in his unique style.
A city artist drew plenty of attention as he created his striking portrait of Marilyn Monroe on the banks of the Wear.
Darren Timby’s work has become instantly recognisable in the city, creating large portraits of everyone from Winston Churchill to The Beatles using only screws.
His latest work has seen him create a stunning piece of 10,000 screws depicting Marilyn Monroe to mark what would have been the screen legend’s 100th birthday on June 1, 2026.
It’s the second time Darren has created a large screw art tribute to Marilyn, the first of which was a huge piece measuring 6ftby4ft, totalling more than 26,000 screws.
“The original piece was in 2020 in memory of my dad as she was one of his favourite movie icons, but it’s so big it’s almost immoveable,” said Darren.
“So I’m calling this one Marilyn 2.0 using a different image of her as inspiration. It’s a shame that the first piece isn’t out there, because logistically it’s so difficult to move. But since then, I’ve started using a different artistic technique, so I’m now able to reduce the size and screw count.”
The latest piece is a more manageable 1m wide and 1.2m high, meaning Darren could take her out of his Roker workshop to install some of the screws on St Peter’s Riverside.
It meant passersby could watch him work - and it attracted plenty of attention.
“I love interacting with people,” said Darren who started the piece on Marilyn’s birthday. “People love being able to guess who it is I’m creating.
“What I’m trying to push more and more is our strong links with our industrial heritage and the screw itself is a symbol of that. It seemed perfect to do this piece on the riverside, where shipyards once lined the banks.
“We’re Mackems, a place of makers and manufacturing excellence and my next piece will really honour that under the term ‘Art of Engineering.’”
Darren typically works with just three colours of screw, black, gold and silver, straight out of the box from the manufacturers, using no paint.
However, on this occasion, he also used two shades of red to make Marilyn’s famous lips really pop.
The piece is very near completion and you’ll be able to see it for yourself at the 24North East gallery on Fawcett Street, where Darren is part of the artist collective.
She will join two other Marilyn pieces of Darren’s at the gallery, which are all for sale.
Darren’s screw art piece was are made possible thanks to TIMCO (and ATF Supplies) who supplied all 10,000+ screws, and also with support with the framework from Warm-Flo Underfloor Heating.