Meet Thomas Marsh of Thomas Marsh Creations

Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Marsh.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Thomas. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My parents met as students at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. So, art was always going to be my thing. I grew up with cartoons and comic books. I most enjoyed the eye-popping characters of Tex Avery’s work, the comic gesture of Jack Davis and MAD Magazine. Saturday morning cartoons used to be pure gold to a kid long before cable TV made cartoon channels around the clock.

Mom and dad were also avid readers so our house was full of excellent well-illustrated books, particularly children’s books; Richard Scarry, Maurice Sendak and Mercer Mayer among my favorites. In school, I often got in trouble for doodling too much. I’d make my own super heroes, but had the most fun drawing cartoons of friends. I began learning how to see and draw the likeness of people. Early on, my expected career path was to follow my dad into the commercial art business.

I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts from Eastern Kentucky University and completed a three-summer internship at Ashland Oil, Inc. My junior year, my supervisor told me they planned to hire me full-time upon graduation. But upon graduation, the job market dropped and my position evaporated. Instead of an expected easy move to employment, I had to hustle just to pick up some freelance here and there. But it was too sporadic and unpredictable to be sustaining, especially for an untested graduate.

After two years, I caught on at the local newspaper doing spec ads for the advertising department. Illustration was not something the creative department had and my expressive cartoons quickly became a hit with clients. In less than a year, the newsroom scooped me up to be their news graphics editor.

I learned journalism on the fly and the art of storytelling. I was allowed complete autonomy in my visual voice and subsequently, my cartoon illustrations and caricatures were huge assets to the readership for 24 great years. I received acres of awards for infographics, illustration, page and niche publication design.

But around 2007, the economy dipped again and journalism particularly took nasty hits. Nationwide, papers were cutting veterans and Pulitzer Prize winners. I managed to survive the cuts but the created vacancies shifted responsibilities to surviving staff and I was pulled away from doing any art. Soon, the job became totally unfulfilling. Being a department supervisor, I had already maxed out my upward mobility and I really needed a change.

Love it or hate it, then came Facebook. Twenty-five years after my high school crush moved to Los Angeles, I get a Facebook friend request from her. And BAM! ~ We were on messenger for hours, catching up on years of what we had been doing, and getting reacquainted. We rekindled a friendship that quickly bloomed into romance. We eventually talked about my art and she suggested exploring opportunities in California.

With my unfulfilling work situation, I decided to take the leap. So, I sold the house, the car, boiled everything I owned down to a thimble, and relocated to California to start a new life with my now wife and to see where my art can take us.

Has it been a smooth road?
Following one’s dreams is a romantic notion but a more interesting story is how one puts a plan in place to make it happen. My plan at the time was to quickly plug in freelancing gigs, but in a bigger market and without fully understanding the landscape or the level of competition, it proved much more difficult. Hindsight is always 20/20 but that’s part of learning on the fly. Thomas Edison had a quote about succeeding by finding 10,000 ways that don’t work. But if one doesn’t try it, one never learns.

So, I went through all the self-doubt, self-help, online advice and blogs, webinars, etc. Learning everything I could and networking with new and exciting people. Learning the marketing and having a vision of what I want, then applying a flexible but focused plan to get there makes the best use of creative time.

I learned that I needed to stay true to myself, buckle down and do the research on where my audience is and engage with them. Marketing for me is about building relationships and sharing myself with an audience who will ultimately become good friends and best clients. New opportunities are sprouting and I’m getting my work in front of wonderful people and building solid relationships. I’m excited about what’s going on.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Thomas Marsh Creations – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I provide lively, energetic artwork with punch for a variety of applications; expressive figurative paintings, humorous editorial illustration, commissioned studio caricature and also have designs and artwork available on a variety of products through Thomas Marsh Creations on Zazzle. I also find that self-publishing children’s book authors have a strong need for the type of illustration I provide.

I have been told many times that my work is more “alive” than most illustrators and that it has more “pop” and a tactile quality that one feels they can actually get their hands around.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://thomasmarsh.net
• Phone: 310.729.7599
• Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
• Other: https://www.zazzle.com/marshcreations

Image Credit:
Caroline Marsh
Thomas Marsh

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