By DOUG MACKEY

Artist Mark Monlux has an oversized tongue. “I had a speech impediment when I was a kid,” he says––no trace of it remaining at age 61— “so no one could understand me when I talked. Except for my mom. So, I started drawing as a secondary way of communication, until I got a speech therapist. So, all I am is someone who’s had more practice,” he demurs.

In truth, Monlux is far more than that. Since graduating from Central Washington University in 1985 with a B.A. in Graphic Art, Mark has built a career as an award-winning freelance illustrator and cartoonist. He advertises himself, however, as a ‘graphic facilitator’. “Whereas a lot of people will think, ‘Oh, a cartoonist! He does logos or he can do book illustrations or advertising or product illustrations.’ I did that kind of work for decades.”‘Graphic facilitation’ , however, encompasses many aspects of art and communication. One, Ideation Illustration, finds him sitting in on “targeted brainstorming sessions and drawing pictures while people are doing concept boards. And those pictures help the marketing guy talk with the engineers.” Monlux did that and related work for 10 years on a corporate level. It’s not too far a stretch from drawing to communicate as a child to employing his skills to help others do the same.

“It’s like sitting on a playground for me. (As a kid) girls would come up and say, ‘Draw me, or draw a horse.’ Boys would ask me to ‘draw a tiger. Draw a UFO. Draw a UFO and a tiger.’ I was always fulfilling requests growing up. The corporate environment is a playground for me. I get that same thrill.”

In the 90’s, Mark and his wife moved from Ballard to the Fern Hill neighborhood in Tacoma, where he set to the task of networking. “Almost a decade went by after moving here before I really started getting involved in the art scene.” It was then that he caught wind of a “wonderful” postcard project that Artist Lynn Di Nino was organizing. “Please, please, please let’s do one of these postcards,” he begged of her. He subsequently did just that, joining a thriving community of artistic souls of all stripes.

From that point forward, Monlux involved himself in several creative community projects, starting with the now legendary chalk art project at Frost Park in 2008. “RR Anderson put out a challenge for everyone to come down and draw on the sidewalk. The next thing you know, people showed up and were on their knees chalking.”

“That winter there were four of us who wanted to do something through the wintertime because you can’t chalk — we were getting rained out.” C.L.A.W., the Cartoonist’s League of Absurd Washingtonians, was born. “We thought it needs to be the silliest drawing group we could possibly come up with — a not so secret secret society with silly hats...an interactive, fun, stupid thing — not highbrow in the least.” Members worked on projects together as well as spin-off activities, collaborating with the Tacoma Art Museum, schools, and booking paying gigs to chalk. The pandemic forced the group into a hibernation of sorts, but those spin-off projects continue to thrive. Among them is Freelance Fandango, which Mark started 10 years ago, wherein freelance creative types of all sorts meet at the Red Elm Café on Hilltop, Mondays, 11am to 1pm. An online version meets Sundays, 10am to noon.

Mark was once given advice he’s taken to heart, especially in the last several years: “Draw what you love”. What he loves and has always loved are movies, especially obscure ones with often silly monsters, both legendary — like the Creature from the Black Lagoon–– and the long-forgotten. This has resulted in illustrated books, movie posters — notably for the Grand Cinema’s Weird Elephant film series — playing cards, and pins. It’s this merchandizing that led Mark to appearances at comic book conventions and carried him through the second year of the pandemic. If it wasn’t for something he started as “almost a hobby, (he) would have been hurting. Through the pandemic I was (also) doing book illustrations — I’ll do whatever projects come my way.”

Monlux has been awarded two Tacoma Artists Initiative grants, the most recent being the Traffic Box Art Wrap Project. “The division of the city that has to deal with graffiti are the ones who fund this, because they found that artwork gets defaced less often than a plain gray utility box. It costs them less money to put out the artwork than it does to clean up the boxes!” His paisley patterned creation can be found at South 72nd and Yakima.

Mark has advice for up-and-coming artists: Charge what you’re worth. “During the first year of working I was undercutting my competitors without knowing anything of the business and I actually got death threats. I had a person call me up and tell me to get my act together or he was literally going to come down with a baseball bat and break both my legs.” He set about the task of learning the ins and outs of the industry — “I had an incentive” — and almost immediately started charging appropriately.

“You have the worst opinion of your value. You gotta be able to just not listen to people — the critiques they give you. Don’t turn away any compliment. Just accept it. And the worst critic you have is yourself so don’t even listen to yourself. When you’re putting yourself down, just smile and do the next thing.