Marquise R. is a painter, filmmaker and sculptor. His friend Hanna calls him the official DJ of Creative Clay. Artist and mentor David Bewley calls him a renaissance man.
He considers himself an artist in the most operative sense of the word. “Sometimes I just sit and draw and don’t stop,” he said.
The 26-year-old St. Petersburg native spends four days a week in the studios of Creative Clay, a non-profit St. Petersburg organization that supports artists with developmental and physical challenges. Currently a Member Artist, Marquise has been selected as a Featured Artist for Folkfest St. Pete 2011.
It is a Wednesday morning and he is seated at one of Creative Clay’s long metal studio tables, in the company of his peers and teachers.
His large wire bound sketchbooks are spread out before him, weathered with ruffled corners. Colorful pencil drawings, embellished with tiny circles, undulating lines, and rows of intricate squares, fill up each page.
Using primary colored pencils, he works meticulously and shades in the graphite pencil outline of his latest creation—a warrior with a talking sword. He draws with precision, his colored pencil gliding across the smooth sheet of white paper; his hand steady, his gaze centered.
Last year, he made the leap from two to three-dimensional art in the form of sculpture. He wanted to take his drawings off the page and into the world.
“I have never seen an artist with the ability to translate his drawings into the 3-D realm the way Marquise had,” Bewley said.
Marquise painted and constructed a 13-and-a-half foot dragon with minimal help from Bewley. Among the five colorful plywood sculptures he created were a dragon in a cave, a magic bird and a princess.
Bewley marvels at the fact that Marquise sold all five of his first sculptures. The magic bird went to a museum and the four remaining pieces were sold to various Bay area waterfront properties.
One of three brothers, the soft-spoken man, with an easy grin and a wry sense of humor, lives at home with his mother. She helps him create the titles for his pieces. Marquise shares a playful rivalry with brother Lamont, an animator. They wager who is more famous. With a glimmer in his eye, Marquise insists he is.
Marquise originally met Bewley through his brother Lamont. Bewley was Lamont’s art teacher at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School. Marquise remembers Bewley coming over for family dinners. Soon after, Bewley connected with Marquise through Creative Clay’s Artlink, a program that matches mentors with artists over a period of a year.
A glimpse into his world reveals a fascination with angels, warriors, dragons and superheroes. He likes things that fly because of their other-worldly perspective.
His favorite piece is called “Angels Flying in Heaven.” Angels envelop the composition in a wash of pastel colors, greens and pinks and yellows and blues.
In July, a movie about superheroes he wrote, directed and starred in called “Armstrong and Beanie” premiered at the St. Petersburg History Museum.
Jill Oldenski, of Gulfport, is a community artist who works with mixed medium art dolls. She spends her Wednesdays volunteering at Creative Clay and has known Marquise for about four years. The former social worker said she looks forward to her Wednesdays with Marquise and believes art can be a way to express yourself when words cannot.
“I love it when he’s in the studio,” Oldenski said. “He always takes his time to help the other artists and he has an incredible sense of humor. He is one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet.”
Marquise’s work can be seen at Folkfest St. Pete 2011, Oct. 1 and 2 at 1124 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg. Visit www.folkfeststpete.org for more information.
Photo by Aimee Alexander
