Community Pride Spotlight: Aaron Allen Marner

AARON ALLEN MARNER – 2024 Pride Parade Grand Marshal

“Gay Pride means a lot to me,” declares Aaron Allen Marner. “It’s something that I carry with me every day.”

Marner creates evocative, urgent, euphoric visuals that have earned him a place in the pantheon of Palm Springs artists. “My work has been built on incorporating different styles, experimenting and trying new things or ideas to keep consistently making things that look fresh and new. I am inspired by other artists, architecture, nature, fashion, pattern work and people. I am always looking for new concepts in order to retool my craft.”

The resulting aesthetic is a cacophony of juxtapositions. Marner’s pieces are on full, fierce display at Peepa’s and V Wine Lounge in the heart of town, not to mention his own website, arronallenart.org. Truly, Marner captures the human condition in all of its fractured fortitude and connects the viewer to his empowered societal sensibility.

“Community is about people of all aspects of life being able to coexist with one another. Supporting one another. I think the biggest thing that resonates with me when I think about the word community is having a sense of belonging. A lot of the times being gay you do not feel that all the time. Feeling like an outsider, not only as gay people but people in general when you are typecast as a minority, ‘other,’ or looked at as differently because you do not fit what society has deemed as ‘normal.’ I think the community should be ever changing and adaptable to the nuances of what is considered to be normal, and inclusion should always be held in the highest regard. As a community, we must make everyone feel welcomed.”

It is this very zeal for inclusivity that has earned Marner the coveted role as 2024 Pride Parade Grand Marshal, and he is an enthusiastic ambassador for the core values of the celebration. “The theme of Be You speaks to me heavily. I think as a gay man I am inherently different from others, but that is what makes me so unique and makes the community so unique – having a plethora of representation throughout it. I always encourage people to be themselves and consider myself as a man who can sit, talk to, and hang out with anyone. I’ve always had an ability to connect with anyone, no matter their walk of life.”

Marner’s skill for outreach ironically stems from his adolescent experiences of marginalization and masculine exploration.

“Being a man who came out at 16, I feel like being gay has always been a part of my life. Being a man who played sports, who did not see a lot of examples of other gay men who were like me until later in life, I felt like an ‘other.’ Going to Pride allowed me to meet other individuals of all walks of life and gave me a sense of belonging.”

Thus began the artist’s romance with representation, a mission that has traced the path from his formative years in Phoenix to the heights of Palm Springs passion.

“The message for me is always Love,” concludes Marner. “Love of self. Love of others. I think the theme of Be You speaks for itself, and I hope that people feel inspired to show up and do just that. Enjoy life, the skin they are in, express themselves wholeheartedly and have an amazing time!”