Meet Marlon Tobias

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marlon Tobias.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been drawing and painting my entire life. My mother was a Home Economics teacher, a seamstress, and a baker so there were always cool arts and crafts supplies and projects around the house that I could get my hands into. I always say that she passed down this gift to me. I took art classes all throughout high school and even minored in Fine Arts in college, but I never took it seriously because I believed the stigma of a “struggling artist”. It wasn’t until I graduated college and life took a turn downward that I began to look at drawing and painting as less of a hobby and more as a gift. At the time, I was traveling from city to city trying to find a stable job, sleeping on friend’s and family’s couches, and working through the divorce of my parents and the dismantling of my family unit. I was broke and broken, so I resorted back to drawing and painting to distract me from my current situation. I am a very internal person who is always in search for truth, balance, and purpose and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that the more I create, the more those three things seem to align in my life. It’s crazy because amongst all of the things I have lost, all of the people that have come and gone, and all of the talents that have gone by the waist side, drawing and painting have always been that talent that never left me and has gotten stronger over time.

Please tell us about your art.
I use my art to capture and chronicle the multifaceted spirit of African descended people. I mainly use oil pastel, a medium that I found out wasn’t the most commonly used art medium, which draws me further to it. Being the son of an African American mother and a Jamaican father, I saw early on the diversity that vividly lies within the people of African descent. Our various shades, curls, shapes, our capacity to excel in so many areas and make it look cool and new. It’s amazing. And in this age of information, I find it baffling that people still believe the narrative that African descended people are monolithic, so whether I’m capturing those quiet, subtle moments or a grandiose gesture, I feel it is my responsibility to reveal that the only thing that remains constant among us is how our souls shine through everything we do.

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
My advice would be to trust and work with your God-given gifts. As long as you do that, there will always be room for you on this Earth, and your life will always be fulfilled. For me, it had to take me being stripped of everything for me to realize that God was telling me that art was my gift and ticket to happiness. You were given the gift to create for a reason. The world needs to see how your eye color the world.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
You can find my work on instagram @marlontobiasart or visit my website, marlontobiasart.com

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MarlonTobiasArt.com
• Email: MarlonTobiasArt@gmail.com
• Instagram: @marlontobiasar