Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marco Robof. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Marco thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

When I was a kid I imagined myself as an archeologist, I was really into some of my father’s “ancient astronauts” theory & archeology books from Erich von Daniken and others; that books, even though I reconsidered all of that “fantasy” theories, helped my imagination blooming, and opened a path to curiosity and investigation for the depths of everything. I used to draw a lot, not from objects, but usually from what my imagination suggested. Later, when I was 14, I discovered graffiti; that technique was so fast, so powerful, that hit me like a train. I’ve never been able to stop since then, so I think that moment was the breaking point of my life. I wanted to live painting and creating.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As I said, I started doing graffiti when I was 14, 24 years ago. Here in my small town, graffiti, except for some tags and throw ups made from visitors, didn’t exist at all, so my purpose when I started was to bring that art form, that amazing epiphany that I had to bloom in my place. The journey was hard, but now I live doing what I love. At first I began working as a graphic designer, doing graffiti just in my free time and for some client, but then I made it my first occupation.
Trough the years I worked also as a Carpenter to learn how to realize some of my furniture and sculpting designs, so now, apart my decoration and graffiti career, I realize wooden sculptures and other pieces.
I like to vary my work trough the years, so I don’t get bored and I’m always challenging myself, learning something new from graffiti and bring it into my wooden works or illustrations, and viceversa.
Actually I’m working for big companies from my territory, realizing big facades; what I always try to do with my clients, whatever the job requires, is to give instead of just selling my abilities, to give my vision, according to the client’s mission or needing, to give originality and comprehension to my clients. I hate working with the new “neuro marketing” vision, I’m not selling myself that way, because is devastating and counterproductive in terms of human relations and creativity.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The line that always kept all my interests and life together was drawn by the sea. I live in Terracina, a small town on the mediterranean sea, and from a breaking point in my life, everything started rotating around that salty blue line; the subjects for my drawings, sculptures and even furnitures are influenced by that, as I see the metaphor that relates my inner search as an artist and human being with the whales that go from the depth of the sea to break the surface and breath. Actually I’m working on a serie of canvas that I named “Ruderi” (ruins, wrecks), that is apart from my passion from the sea, but reflects another aspect that keeps myself related to my territory: the infinite fields in the countryside of my place, constellated by old farmhouse in ruins, taken back from nature. That is another metaphor that I’m relating too, breaking the rationality trough the free power of the unconscious.
My goal is to understand trough my creative path as much as I can about myself, in order to relate with love, friendships, nature and life.
Is the same that moved me when, as a kid, I thought I’d be an archeologist: Discovering roots.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Well, the answer is easy, being an artist is the reward itself. Since I was a kid, whenever someone told me “I wish I was able like you in drawing”, I always say: just do it. Working with art, wether it could be music, poetry, visual, etc.. is about being human; it requires bravery, passion, love, not just talent, study and dedication.
I don’t even like to identify myself as an artist, I’m a man expressing himself, trying to find a non verbal language that could reflect what I feel, and what I feel from the others.
I think that is the most rewarding aspect of my life, having the opportunity of creating my own language and that it could be understood from others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://robof.studio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robof_studio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobofDecoArt

Image Credits
All the rights of the photos belong to me