About Jared Marshall

Jared Damian Christopher Marshall was born October 14, 1995 to mom, Amanda. He is the oldest sibling, with three sisters—Briana, Faith and Hailey, and 3 half-sisters—Zoe, Hailey and Abigail. He is the grandson of Patricia and Phil, and nephew to Ian and Loribeth, Cheryl, Lindsay and Steve, and Gretchen. He has several cousins as well—Tricia, Sophia, Isabel, Sylvia, Keith and Elycia.

As a young child, Jared enjoyed going to the circus; playing Pokemon, Legos, with little army men and rubber bands (a Marshall family favorite pastime); spending time with family; and drawing—his lifelong love. He won awards for basketball and the Scholastic Gold Key in 8th grade for a sculpture he whittled out of wood of a man with a bow and arrow, which was displayed in Boston for 6 months! At around the same time, Jared discovered grunge music and taught himself to play guitar; Nirvana and Soundgarden were his biggest influences, but he also enjoyed Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins. His love of skateboarding soon followed. He would tag all over the skate parks—just another medium for his creativity. When he was accepted to Southeastern for the DVC program, his passion for art increased. He spent much of his free time drawing on anything he could reach: napkins, rocks, shells, backpacks, shoes, jeans, other people and himself. Jared's music choice turned to punk rock—some old school: Ramones, The Clash, The Melvins (his high school graduation cap had "Jared goes to college" written on it, a play on the cover of one of The Melvin's albums), Black Flag, Pixies; and some newer: Blink 182, Less Than Jake, Joyce Manor and Tigers Jaw, to name a few.

His love of punk music is what led him to Marissa, the love of his life. She was writing her senior paper on punk music and the two of them clicked from the beginning. During his junior and senior year of high school, Jared not only became very accomplished at drawing, painting and photography, he was a talented snowboarder, fisherman (well, he thought he was!) and guitarist. His goals in life changed day to day, but it was always in the art field: a tattoo artist, an art therapist, owning his own "Paint Bar." As he and Marissa got closer, Jared worried about how to support a family on the salary of an artist. He looked into other fields (airplane mechanic being one of them!) as a means to make money. He eventually became determined to follow his passion and, after much poking and prodding, applied and was accepted to Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. He was ecstatic! His portfolio was amazing and he had so much more to offer.

Jared tragically passed away July 20th, 2014, about one month before he should have started college. It was a senseless and horrible accident that left family and friends reeling. His sisters lost a brother who listened and helped them solve their problems. Marissa lost a boyfriend, the man with whom she was going to spend the rest of her life. His mom lost her only son. His grandparents lost their only grandson. His friends lost a selfless, intuitive, compassionate dude. The art community lost a talented man. The world lost an extraordinary gentlemen who taught others to think outside the box, to follow your heart and not go with the flow, to "fight the man," to love your family through thick and thin, that staying true to yourself is the most important thing and, finally, what staying rad is really all about.

We love and miss you like crazy, Jared.

#StayRadForJared