MARYSVILLE — After more than a decade of traveling, Arlington-raised Brooks Smothers is glad to be back in his old hometown, working as a creative graphic artist for The Marysville Globe and The Arlington Times.

“Arlington has changed so much in the more than 10 years since I’ve been gone,” said Smothers, who enjoys spending time with his father in Arlington when he’s not working. “What I can bring to The Marysville Globe and The Arlington Times is my 14 years of experience in all different facets of marketing and advertising, to aid local businesses in thinking beyond individual ads. I can help them shape extended ad campaigns and give them a consistency from week to week.”

Smothers’ graphic design and photography experience ranges from small boutique design firms to Fortune 500 companies, and in the publishing realm, includes newspapers, magazines and wire service agencies. He’s taught community college courses on graphic design and is proud to have conducted still set photography for such films as “Mighty Times: The Children’s March,” an Academy Award-winning documentary about the Birmingham, Ala., civil rights marches.

“Working in both graphic design and photography has given me a holistic approach, so that I can see the symbiotic relationship between them,” said Smothers, a graduate of Western Washington University who’s driven across the country seven times and lived as far away as Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands. “I’ve used that time to explore my profession.”