Frizzell puts his heart in city project

Dick Frizzell painted Downtown Tiki as part of the Heart Mark outdoor artwork series. Photo / Nick Reed

Dick Frizzell painted Downtown Tiki as part of the Heart Mark outdoor artwork series.

Artist Dick Frizzell has produced another take on his famous lithograph, Mickey to Tiki, to help celebrate central Auckland.

Downtown Tiki, a brick red, mustard yellow and black and white heart-shaped mural, is part of Heart of the City's Heart Mark outdoor artwork series.

The initiative, in which artists share what Auckland's central city means to them, was timed to coincide with Artweek Auckland, which began on Saturday.

Frizzell said he painted the mural on a wall of the Auckland Fish Market building during a "howling gale" on Wednesday.

"I was battling the elements in a scissor lift."

He struggled with the assignment until he had a "4am epiphany", Frizzell said.

"I went back to my usual trick - what would Dick Frizzell do? I had the idea that I could take a tiki and work it with a heart-shaped framework ... I'm rapt with the way it came out."