MANSFIELD — Roger Marvicsin spent years and years following guidelines. And now that he doesn’t have to, he’s taking every advantage of it.
In the 1960s, the Mansfield native worked for different advertising agencies in Kansas City before moving back to his hometown in 1972. “I was a designer, an illustrator, a copywriter, a so-called marketing expert…I did a little bit of everything,” he said. A few years after returning to Mansfield, he started his own agency, “The Design Group.”
“During my career, from the time I started, there were guidelines,” Marvicsin said. Every time he sat down at the drawing board or the computer, he knew exactly what needed to be executed.
“I enjoyed every second of my career, but after all those years I decided that if I pursued what I really loved to do, it would be without guidelines,” he said.
When Marvicsin retired in 2004, it gave him the opportunity to do what he wanted to do, he said.
“Now I just sit down with a sketchpad and a pencil with nothing in mind and I begin sketching,” he said. “It’s always an interesting process to watch it go from nothing to something that I hadn’t even planned on.”
Over the last three or four years, he’s completed almost 2,000 sketches, and turned about 50 of those sketches into paintings.
“I’m really fascinated by the process of sitting down with a sketchpad and a pencil and nothing else in my mind except an interest in seeing what develops,” he said.
A self-described minimalist, Marvicsin said, “When I get a painting to the point where I think it completes the message, I don’t add details for the sake of putting details in it.”
He uses both oil and acrylic paint for his paintings and enjoys incorporating bold colors and outlines.
Marvicsin’s fascination with art traces back to when he was a toddler. “That marker and that paper could magically take me wherever I wanted to be,” he said.
He received support from his mother, who would cover her bedroom with his artwork, and even his teachers at school, who would ask him to work on art projects for them.
“I’ve been doing art with great passion all my life,” he said.
On Friday, May 6, the public will have an opportunity to view some of his artwork during the First Friday Shop Hop. His pieces will be on display in the Green Room above Hursh Drugs at 90 N. Diamond St. in Mansfield.
Marvicsin said he’s excited about the upcoming event and that he plans on being involved in local community efforts that promote the arts. He will be one of the muralists to contribute to the artwork featured on the Richland B&O Trail, he said.
In the next year and a half, he intends to travel across the country to showcase his paintings in various exhibits.
“I don’t think I’ll live long enough to work them all, but I’m going to give it my best shot,” he said.
