Made in the Dark
By Marian Gbaiwon
I’ve been a creative for as long as I can remember. But I didn’t always know what to call it. I just knew I could do things. A lot of things. I could design, write, direct- imagine. And not just imagine, I could bring things into reality that didn’t exist before. Things I saw in my head somehow found their way into the world through my hands.
But where that came from wasn’t glamorous. It didn’t come from perfect conditions or a supportive childhood. It came from isolation. It came from pain. It came from the dark.
As a child, I spent most nights awake, lying there unable to sleep. I didn’t know I had ADHD. I just knew my mind wouldn’t stop. Everything around me would be still. Everyone in the house asleep. No voices, no footsteps, no light from the hallway. Just me, lying in that silence with a mind that wouldn’t quiet down. The world would stop moving, but my brain never did.
And that stillness used to terrify me.
Not because I was afraid of the dark itself, but because in that kind of stillness, your mind has no boundaries. There’s nothing to distract it, nothing to ground it. No voices in the next room, no TV humming, no movement to remind you that you’re safe. It’s just you and your imagination—raw, unfiltered, and fully unleashed.
And mine was wild.
I imagined things that weren’t there. I saw shadows move when nothing else was moving. I heard whispers in the silence. Not because I was broken, but because I was wired to create. My brain filled in the blanks. It turned the dark into stories, into visions, into full-blown scenes. It built things that didn’t exist—and that used to scare me, because there were no limits. The dark didn’t come with edges. It was infinite. And that infinity, at first, felt like danger.
But eventually, I stopped running from it.
I realized that same limitless imagination that kept me awake was also what made me different. I wasn’t cursed. I was gifted. I learned how to create out of nothing. I learned how to take silence and spin it into meaning. I learned how to sit with the dark long enough to see the possibilities inside it.
The dark became my canvas.
And out of it, I built a life.

A life that didn’t come easy. I grew up in an abusive home. I joined a cult in high school. I married into violence. I’ve been overlooked, underestimated, and silenced. But no matter how deep the pain went, it never swallowed me because I knew how to create my way out.
I’ve created with very little. I’ve built with bare hands and no blueprint. I’ve made beauty out of scarcity. Because I trust myself. I trust the visions I see in the dark. I trust that what flows through me is real, and worthy, and unstoppable.
And in the past few years alone, I’ve:

• Authored viral pieces that have been viewed millions of times across multiple social platforms
• Founded the number one content creation studio in my city
• Created the first of its kind city-recognized, award show that honors creatives.
• Built a media brand that gives voice and visibility to those often overlooked
• Captured weddings, portraits, and campaigns from Houston to Honolulu, Tokyo to Baton Rouge
Every single project I’ve ever touched came from the same place: the dark.
That quiet space where the world sleeps but my imagination doesn’t.
This portfolio isn’t just a collection of work. It’s a map of where I’ve been and proof that legacy is being built in real time. I hope you see something here that speaks to you. And if you feel called to create something powerful, I hope we get to work together.

Because when you’ve learned how to create in the dark,
there’s nothing you can’t make in the light.
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