I make stuff. Here are some of the things of which I’m most proud.
Please check out my Multimedia and Fashion Design tabs too!
Different media from throughout my last 5 years.
This is a self-portrait….
An exercise in color graduations.
I drew this for my Nana.
Nana told me the cancer growth was the size of a cantaloupe.
I juxtaposed the frightening image of the cantaloupe with my rosary, to represent the faith we relied on as she fought her way to recovery.
One of my oddest projects: an OrMangotan.
I’m serious.
It’s pretty amazing what you can do with a LOT of Tootsie rolls, Twizzlers Pull ‘n Peel, dried mango and a glue gun!
I used a hair dryer to warm up the Tootsie Rolls until they were pliable!
I really like this art style…
This is a portrait of Mitski in the symbolic-tattooed style of the Spanish artist Ricardo Cavolo (check out his work!)
My favorite part of making this was filling it with visual references to her music and career.
Janis Joplin
Rory Gallagher: my Neurodivergent Guitar Hero
Rory Gallagher, one of the most underrated guitarists of all time.
Many of his fans believe he may have been autistic, so I look to him as an icon of Aspie Power in the classic rock world (hence the neurodiversity symbol on his forehead!) It was a real challenge to get his famously battered Stratocaster right!
This is three-dimensional Afghan Girl.
This is a cardboard bas-relief of Sharbat Gula, the “Afghan Girl” from that iconic National Geographic photo.
I still couldn’t quite capture the eyes. I doubt if anyone can.
Layered cardboard.
Painting her.
I spent most of the summer of 2020 sewing masks.
These are some of them, before I added the gathers.
Above: 2020 Black-and-Brown inclusive LGBTQIA+ pride flags.
Below: Bisexual flags (Bi Pride!)
And selling them in an informal business I call “Masks by Maria.”
I’ve made about ninety masks, for family, friends, the costumes crew, protests and fundraisers.
Pride flags, Bisexual Pride flags, Transgender Pride flags, hand-embroidered Black Lives Matter masks, and masks made out of limited-edition fabric designed by The Who!
Made to raise money for Montclair Mutual Aid, a local nonprofit that’s been heavily involved in many of the Black Lives Matter rallies in my neighborhood.
Closeup of the BLM mask
This mask was also featured in a fashion show for the clothing company Sofistafunk!
My Grandma taught me how to sew…
And I’ve been designing and making dresses ever since.
Taking the “handkerchief hem” to its logical conclusion.
This is influenced by Edward Gorey and John Kenn Mortensen.
The media has a history of portraying people who struggle with mental illnesses as freakish and monstrous. The most egregious example is the horror trope of the “haunted insane asylum”. This creates a stigma around mental health facilities, and this stigma often keeps us from seeking treatment. Even if our friends and relatives intervene and get us into treatment, the internalized stigma often lingers, making us feel like blithering monsters that need to be locked away. This self-hatred compounds our illnesses even further, and makes it even harder to recover. Our culture needs to normalize inpatient mental health treatment, so people with mental illnesses don’t have to grapple with this traumatic stigma and can focus on recovery.
I also make puppets…
This puppet is made from Indian textiles that my good friend Minal gave me.
I named her Borealice, a pun on the aurora borealis.
Oddly enough, this is a reference to the Deep Purple song “Space Truckin’”!
I was asked to make a custom apron for our Fencing Team’s Armory-creating Dad!
I did this with a soldering iron and oil-based ink, using a transfer process I invented.
We are the Montclair Bulldogs.
David Bauer is now the proud owner of this apron.
Sometimes I sketch.
The Austrian Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka: original photo and pencil sketch.
I remember being mesmerized (and a bit frightened) by his art whenever I read my mom’s Theatre Posters anthology as a kid!
And experiment with varying mediums.
The same Oskar Kokoschka portrait, but rendered in cold wax and black oil paint on bristol board.
This involved everything from palette knives to an old toothbrush!
Sometimes just paper and ink.
This is a caricature of Mr. Cleerdin, my beloved art teacher…
Attempted in the style of Al Hirschfeld. My conclusion: Al Hirschfeld is completely inimitable.
A pencil drawing in more ways than one!
I chose a heron because of its narrow, pointed beak and rows of long, well-defined feathers.
Detail
My favorite part was making the ferrules look realistically metallic (yes, they’re called ferrules!)
A digital logo I designed for a one-act play at my high school.
Art Deco, circuitry, the YouTube fast-forward logo made into wide-open graffiti eyes, niche meme fonts, and Bongo Cat in a 1920s boater hat.
(Look up the play, and all of this will make sense, I swear!)
Halloween is a favorite holiday.
(What better occasion to practice your costume design?)
Girl with a Pearl Earring!
Halloween is also a time for literary references.
I made a copy of Scout Finch’s ham costume from “To Kill a Mockingbird”
It wasn’t very easy to walk in it!
Halloween is also for musical references.
Another one of my Aspie music heroes—David Byrne!
I tailored a size 50 suit to my height and reinforced it with lots of cardboard and wire. Designed the lamp mask too, as a reference to the “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”
One day an EGOT visited the Thrift Shop
Whoopi!!! - No this is not art, but hey!
Whoopi came by to celebrate her birthday at the Montclair Diner. My co-workers at the Thrift store brought her a gift.
Yes, I am obsessed with Pete Townshend.
Only a polymath like him would be able to lay the foundations for hard rock, prog rock, and punk rock at the same time!
A poster I made for a local vegan restaurant.
Montclair Vegan
Inspired by Erté and the outfit I designed for Montclair Design week’s Genderfluid Fashion (see the Fashion Design section)
This is a lyric from the song “Heaven is in Your Mind” by the psychedelic prog-rock band Traffic!
A poster I made for a protest against the Newark Water Crisis
This is inspired by that famous “floating faucet fountain” illusion.