Life & Work with Rahn Marion

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rahn Marion.

Hi Rahn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began my art journey very young in church drawing on the bulletins alongside the hymns, and sermons. Exchanging drawings with my friends. My mom pushed me to pursue art, and I started taking it seriously in high school (Central Highschool) and going into college (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore.

In college, I didn’t know how to paint or sculpt at the time I was mainly using colored pencils, and charcoal exclusively. But I was stubbornly determined to grow and improve in painting, and later sculpting. After graduating, I came back to Memphis for one last hooray, and luckily my job (First Congregational Church, Minster of Art) has helped me retain my artistic hand and kept me close to Memphis.

Here I’ve learned to persevere, and not be afraid of failure, or let my southern surroundings belittle my queer black experience. Through all this, I’ve taught myself to use wood as a medium and built up my artistic style of painting, and storytelling in a way that comes naturally to me.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As an artist, you have to be a little mad in the head because we feel a deep encompassing urge to reflect on the times, and the world around us, and our world is nothing short of a beautiful disaster I try to capture the essence of a feeling of the experience of a queer black male, in the south.

Some are more heavy-handed than others but most are just from my mind’s eye of what is happening in the world around me, and where I can place myself at this table.

My experience in the south aside from my grade school days isn’t too sour, only because I’ve learned to surround myself with great people who support and love me, and that was the hardest part of finding myself and voice in Memphis, was finding queer creative community.

The south can be a beautiful, low-key place but only in small sections and in a community with other like-minded people.

Also making queer works in a church has brought up my own ingrained conservative ideas of what is tolerated, or accepted in a church setting, I had a meeting with the pastor Cheryl Cornish to ask for guidance on this and she said it was fine, and that most historical works have some nudity and queer storyline.

So I had to sit with that and look into myself as to why I felt pulled back a bit in this setting, I still struggle with this from time to time.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work is interesting, I’m the Artist in Residence and Minster of Art/ Art Director at First Congregational Church in Midtown.

I create 30ft murals for each of the 7 liturgical seasons of the church, Advent, Epiphany, Pentecost, Easter, etc. As well as create 100s of small pieces of art to hang in the large 10,000 sq. ft. sanctuary. I also host workshops each Thursday in the art studios, sometimes inviting others to host and learn new skills or sometimes helping with the upcoming sanctuary artworks.

I’m very proud of my job, I not only feel a sense of purpose through art-making with the community but also I’m able to focus on my own art practice.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
My podcast taste is all over the place, but I’ve recently found an everything cryptic, paranormal, and odd radio show, it’s 3 hours long which is perfect for getting work done, it’s called “Coast to Coast FM, Midnight in the Desert” with Art Bell – it’s from the mid-90s to 2015 and it’s interesting to hear of how the times were and where we’ve come and I’m finding we’re still in the same place we were back then, just with a few more gadget and a bit more aware of everything.

I also almost religiously listen to “Small Doses”, with Amanda Seales who is an Afro-Caribbean woman who speaks of different topics pertaining specifically to black folk, this one is pretty grounding and hilarious. I also look at different art history books, some donated to me, and I study their compositions, tones, and backgrounds for future paintings or drawings.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rahnmarion.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rahn_marion
• Other: https://www.tonememphis.org/past/ecce-homo

Image Credits
Sam Griffin, Micah McClain Dawn from TONE Memphis, and Ron Sr. Marion