"Nobody ever sees me"...Amanda Palmer sees you.

I heard this on a podcast while driving...it was so profound. I loved it so much that I had to watch it today. Please, if you wonder why your making your art...please watch this. Making art is about connecting to others really...that's the long and short of it. Everything is about feeling deep, real connections.
https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking

MOCAA show

Here's a little promotion for the MOCCA show this weekend! It's at the 69th regiment Armory in NYC. I'll be there from 11-12 Sat and 3-5 on Sunday. The FIT Table #F32.
http://www.societyillustrators.org/Mocca_Event.aspx?id=10561

My Manifesto

Uppercase had a call for entries on the theme of "Manifesto". I thought I'd give it a try. I tried to pull together some of my favorite, most inspiring thoughts...crammed them into a watercolor pattern and here's what I came up with. I put it up in my Society 6 shop too, incase anyone wants to purchase a print. http://society6.com/mariacarluccio/marias-manifesto_Print#1=45

Oil painting

Here's a painting done for Martin Whitfooth's class. He's an awesome teacher...loved working with him, what a treat. I thought I'd show the process of the painting. From sketches to finish.
I have been fascinated with the idea of books as living things. Ideas seems to feed other ideas and words connect to other words. I'm going to try and do a poster with this at some point. My love of books seems to overflow into so many things these days.

Figure drawings

Posting a few figures done in ink wash. I did these back in December. It was the culmination on many months of trying to get back in shape with figure drawing. Thanks to Melanie Reim though, who saw me through some bad stuff but just kept pushing me. Of coarse I won't post the bad ones but believe me there were quite a few. The top image is a color experiment I tried today. I wanted to see if  I could get some texture in there...not sure I like it but it's worth trying out. 

Elif Shafak

Check out this inspiring TED talk by Elif Shafak. It's for authors and all...just a great way to look at the world.
http://www.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_the_politics_of_fiction.html

Kids portraits

I was dropping Maja off at school the other day and saw these fantastic portraits up on the wall by a classroom. It's like Picasso said "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up". It humbles me to see the creative energy oozing out of kids. I feel like I spend my life refining my craft and sometimes in the refinement I loose the essence of what was there when I started. When I look a children's art I see that essence. There is a spirit of each person coming through in a simple, clear way. I love the idea of kids doing their own self portraits, it makes me think- Why not do a self portrait every year, just like we take a school picture? Who knows, it's never too late to start.
Sometimes I will study how I want my characters to look. Do I want big eyes, small noses, and so on. It's fun to experiment with features. When I look at these portraits I see the way children make choices. How they too are trying out new noses and eyes and playing with with all kind of proportions. 
These are just a few portraits. I'll post more soon.