We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marshall Harris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marshall below.

Marshall, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I recently (September – December 2021) spent three months in France working on an artist residency/mentorship project sponsored by FACE/FA and FACE/Santo (French American Creative Exchange). This project is termed a social participatory practice and functions, unlike anything I had been involved with previously. During this Residency, I would be living and working in a region just outside of Paris called Seine-Saint-Denis. I would be working with Monte Laster as the FACE director, His artistic assistant and coordinator extraordinaire Dee Curtis, as well as two middle school-aged classes and an American Rules football organization called The Flash which is located in the city of La Courneuve. The project was intentionally unstructured and one that would involve me as a mentor, working with the school kids, their teachers, and this football organization. The umbrella theme to be explored was “Resilience” and its effects on what it means to us all in these trying times.

The project was meaningful to me as it made me function in an unfamiliar way with people I didn’t know and in circumstances that revealed themselves every day. It took me completely out of my comfort zone. We didn’t share a common language. We discovered its culture and the way they do things on a very intimate level. It is probably the most profound experience in my life to this date. I say we because my wife traveled with me to document the project and we became part of the French community for our short time there. We were not tourists. We were members of an amazingly diverse and extraordinarily gracious and welcoming community who were also of a mixture of cultures and races from all over the world.

Marshall, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m an artist. I wasn’t always an artist. I have been a marketing and advertising executive, and an exhibit designer for museums and aquariums and after college, I played several years in the NFL and USFL. By the USFL reference, you can calculate that I’m not a young artist. I started late as an artist – after I had done and decided what I didn’t want to be when I grew up.

My studio work is hyperrealism executed in graphite on Mylar. These are drawings that are usually quite large and extraordinarily detailed. People see them and think they are looking at photographs. I do these works, many of which take 300-400 hours to complete, to bring the viewer’s attention to the details that we typically overlook in our hurried lives. The scar or blemish in a model’s skin or the scratch in the leather of a historic Western saddle all has a story attached, a meaning to the imperfection. It’s the details in a subject that I find beautiful and relevant.

My works are created to stop the viewer, to grab their attention, and to begin a conversation with them. If the work does not create that dialog with its spectator then that’s a failed attempt I feel. I would like my work to speak out every time a person walks by even if it’s simply to say, “Hello!”.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The resilience theme, as I mentioned before has become one that keeps popping back up in my most recent career path. That means that I’m supposed to be paying attention and trusting the universe unconditionally. What I mean by that is although I hadn’t actively known that I was practicing resilience in my adult life I have been. I have been experiencing resilience sometimes through trial and error. As I mentioned I played professional football back in the ’80s. To get to that level you have to have and practice resilience every moment you are in it. I didn’t recognize it as “resilience” at the time. I called it stubbornness and the conviction to not give up. But I guess that could be a very rough definition of resilience. Through it all, I have tried to always face forward and move in a positive direction. I didn’t always succeed. It’s not always easy or looks like you are making progress. But that too is an example of how resiliency in the face of hurdles or obstructions will see you through. Even if it’s hard, or even if you fail, you will be learning something in the process. Just this morning I was wondering why I’m even doing this art thing. It seems like such a time-sucking thankless task and yet, I get your email about these questions, and boom! I‘m reminded that it’s not my job to figure out where I’m going. It’s just my job to paddle my boat with resilience.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Well, having attempted a lot of other professions in my lifetime I can say that being an artist is maybe one of the most ridiculous and rewarding things that a person can be. I stress “be” because I believe creativity is within all of us but we put on a conventional costume from a very early age. I was a jock until my late early 30s. Then when that ended I put on the costume of an advertising guy. Then an exhibits developer guy. I was always an artist inside and underneath but I never allowed myself to embrace that concept because artists were “Not a real job for successful people”. It wasn’t until I burnt out in my late 50’s that I decided that I couldn’t work for anyone else and that I needed to do something for myself. I was almost 60 before I would announce to people when asked “What do you do?” and I would answer “I’m an artist!” That’s a HUGE step for most of us. We are defined by what we DO in this society. Being an artist was like not being an adult. But what it allowed me to do was get off of that life raft that we all float upon because it’s safe and predictable. Having a real job meant a salary and maybe benefits but I never got to really swim in the pool of life, I mean really swim without that life raft of the job and the title. In dropping out of corporate structure I’m only beholden to myself and my conviction and resilience to succeed. And success manifests in so so many beautiful and wonderful ways. I got to spend three months in probably the most romantic place on earth and experience it in a way that I could not have planned. If I had a regular job I’m not sure that would have happened.

So the most rewarding aspect of being creative is that you are swimming in the ocean of life with no floaties – and maybe you might be drowning – or being eaten by sharks. But it doesn’t matter because it’s all up to you and not up to you. It’s the most exciting way to live that I could ever imagine. I will never go back.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marshallkharris.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshallkharrisart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marshall.harris.902
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshall-harris-4b85615/