Meet Tim Marsh

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

Hi Tim, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Born in the Pittsburgh area and moved East of Ann Arbor at the age of 4 years, where I lived during childhood and most of my adult life. From those early years, my interest in nature and art grew and became a staple in my life. 

When in my mid 20’s I relocated back to the Pittsburgh area for two years, where I worked for the original Kauffmann’s department store in visual merchandising for Men’s, as a street window designer, and special events promotions. 

These were the Kauffmann’s who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build his most famous home, Falling Waters, which I’ve been to three times. 

After returning, I married my childhood sweetheart and started a family while working for a large Michigan-based retailer and would continue to do so for 27 years until 2017. 

Throughout this time I continued my work as an artist honing my skills while creating, exhibiting, doing shows, art fairs, selling, and teaching in various location in Southeast Michigan. I’ve always enjoyed meeting people at art shows and exhibits, whether artists or art enthusiasts, and chatting about what it all means and how it affects all of us. What I enjoyed most about teaching was sharing in the artistic energy of the kids and watching their unique creativity develop. There are a couple that I’m still connected with today and have become accomplished artist. The thought that I may have influenced them in a positive way is very meaningful to me. 

The same way that a couple of my teachers did for me. 

I’ve shown my work mainly throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. I’ve sold my work throughout the US as well as other countries. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to win awards for my work in several events and be featured in many shows including as featured artist for the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair in 2010 with my award-winning painting titled “Monkey Business”. However, my most treasured awards are the 8 People’s Choice awards. It pleases me to know that other people who I don’t know enjoy my work enough to let me know. 

I’ve enjoyed being invited to give artist talks, lead group critiques, and even Judge a few art exhibits as well as an invitation to do a painting demo at the DIA. 

As a teen, most of my work was done in graphite and I began to explore other mediums when I attended EMU where I was first introduced to color by way of Colored Pencil. This sparked a huge interest for me as I really enjoyed the process of the medium as well as the finished result my style produced. I continued with this medium for over fifteen years when in 2001, I dove into oil painting as it enabled me to produce larger works at a less tedious pace with an explosion of color. 

Oil was my main medium of choice for about eighteen year or about 2019, when I felt the need to express myself though 3-D mixed media. I have created 3-D works on and off throughout all of these years using various clays and even in my last few years of painting in the form of adding relief and objects into my oils. I’m certain that was the birth of my 3-D mixed media work, which is now my main medium. 

I find it less constricting and can blend my love of nature and my interest in the history of man-made objects from decades past when combined in one of my creations tells its own little story. 

I still occasionally partake in my previously loved mediums while testing out some newer ventures, such as having fun exploring encaustic works of which I’ve now created my forth. 

I do have my largest work ever created in progress which is a relief oil on a six-panel canvas with a coral reef/sea life/ environmental theme spanning eighteen feet expected to be completed in 2024. (Wish me luck!) 

If there’s a message to my art it is to enjoy and value all forms of life. 

If there is something I can pass on to other artists of any age or level of ability, it is the following. 

Now at the ripe old age of 61 and after having a couple serious health issues, I’ve revisited how and where I want to spend my life and what I want to be doing and creating. 

As many working artists do, I’ve questioned my level of success as a professional artist and what plateaus or benchmarks I feel I needed to reach. What I’ve learned is to not get tangled in what we think are society’s measures of success and just do my thing. Live it every day and enjoy what I’m doing, and don’t worry about the timeline or anyone’s preconceived expectations. Not even my own. 

After finally relocating to the city of Ludington with my wife of 30 years, I’ve spent the last year settling into my new home and studio. 

Ludington is very nature-oriented and has a beautiful art center and healthy art community where I feel I fit in nicely. 

My future plans- Live, love, laugh. create, appreciate, and enjoy! 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The difficult part is keeping the momentum of creativity and continued involvement in the art scene while raising a family, working my “real job,” as so many like to put it, and the expense of being an artist. 

When you’re early in your art career and you have the responsibilities of raising children and mortgages and life your art almost always comes last. 

It’s often a one-step forward, two-step back process. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve called myself a Nature Artist. Most nature/wildlife Michigan artists create northern subjects. I, on the other hand, have for many years focused on brightly colored subject such as tropical nature. Certainly, unique for a North Eastern artist, but that’s where my interests were for many years as an oil painter. 

What was surprising to me was that I was fortunate to receive a good amount of attention for it, and my work has been used to promote many events and shows. 

My newer works have incorporated many more elements outside of tropical nature, and I’m enjoying a broader selection of subjects and environments. 

What’s next?
I did make an earlier comment on my plans for the future however, I don’t foresee any other big changes as far as the direction my work takes or my location. 

I think one of the exciting things is that we don’t always know. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.timmarsh-nature2nature.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timmarsh.artist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063562173185