Keester Feature: Marcus Murray

Keester Feature: Marcus Murray

"I’ve always loved visual storytelling from comics, to movies, to video games, and whatever other nerdy mediums I come across along the way." - Marcus Murray

I've been a fan of Marcus' illustrations for a while now. With a keen sense of visual storytelling and bright color palettes, Marcus' illustrations are absolutely beautiful and highly engaging. As an educator and artist, it's clear to the fusion of the two in Marcus' work.

His work explores themes of afrofuturism, mythology, history, and playful storytelling. For the last three years, Marcus has organized "10 Days of Black History Month," an initiative providing prompts centered around black history. Not only do artists create works based on these prompts, but each of Marcus' illustrations is paired with different stories.

I hope you'll take some time to learn more about Marcus and his work below. He's doing some really wonderful work for the Denver community.

Marcus gets "Keesterfied"


Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? How did you get started as an illustrator and what has influenced your work?

I grew up in a house full of artists. My father was a painter, my brothers drew anime a lot, and all of that sort of trickled down to me. I’ve been in love with creating since the beginning.
Despite that, I never really saw myself as an “artist” until maybe four years ago when I started to share my art on instagram and in turn started making some money here and there through commissions. My Influences have primarily stayed the same. I’ve always loved visual storytelling from comics, to movies, to video games, and whatever other nerdy mediums I come across along the way. 
You're a very skilled visual storyteller, from composition to your color palette. What kind of stories are you most drawn to in your illustration?

The stories I’m most drawn to are really influenced by my Jamaican heritage. I’d say a lot of it is very playful and even some of the more mundane illustrations have hints of my love for both mythology and afrofuturism.

 

 

 

 

What's a project you've worked on that you're most proud of? What's a dream project for you?

The project I’m most proud of is a mural I did where we painted the outside of the building my little sister back in Omaha runs her juice business out of. We only had three days to paint the whole thing in 90 degree heat and were out there for 12 hours a day painting. I think my dream project would be to write and illustrate a children’s book about afrofuturism.

 

I see you recently released the Black History Year Round educational coloring book. Can you tell me a bit more about that and the inspiration behind it?

The Black History Year Round coloring book stemmed from an art challenge my friend Kandice Cleveland and I have been hosting for the past 3 years called 10 Days of Black History Month. We create prompts around black history and then create illustrations around them. I’ve worked in education for the last 8 years and have had a lot of teachers; upon seeing the illustrations, say that they need a coloring book with these illustrations. This year I’ve seen a lot of elementary aged students following the prompts and decided this a good exercise to help facilitate black history learning year round as well. So I created a book primarily with kids in mind, but honestly for anyone willing to do a little more black history learning outside the confines of February.

Get more Marcus

Website | Instagram | Patreon | Black History Year Round Coloring Book

Back to blog

Join The Keester Club

Join the fight against an isolating, gray world! Through the power of butts, Keester Club members bring a bit of color and joy to the world. From supporting artists, to raising money, the club is about a lot more than butts.

Learn More