Don't worry, I'm not going to make this a serious 'religion vs. science' post.

An assignment I had last semester was to create a painting of some kind of serious topic featuring human subjects. The conflict between religion and science is something I've been interested in and wanted to play around with that. I won't go into discussion of my feelings about the subject, but instead just briefly touch upon my materials and methods and keep it at that.

I really wanted to have fun with this one, and I really played around with mixed media. I did the piece on wood, the majority was painted with acrylic, gold paint was also used, magazine scraps and sewing thread for little accents and finishing touches.

Mexican folk art was the style I wanted to mimic while keeping it light and somewhat comical. My main subject was Galileo holding the sacred heart surrounded by that folk art feeling with lots of decorative elements. I just really wanted to push the decorative bits more than anything else. It's also been a while since I've worked with acrylic like that.

I plan on playing around with Mexican folk art inspired decorative pieces. It's fun and a bit challenging to be able to pull of patterns and colors and make it all work. But I love that.

To end the post, here's a fun video I wanted to share from Tim Minchin. I came across it when I started this project and thought it somewhat related. Rants about science. I love it. Tim Minchin is amazing. Watch this, you won't regret it.

One project I was assigned last semester was to take a preexisting movie and give it a makeover, as if it was to be redone today. We were allowed to change anything we wanted to. My head immediately went to Pretty In Pink. I wanted to go wild with the pink, add cherry blossoms, and make the setting in Japan.

After doing some research, I chose Kyoto. My version of Andie would be Japanese, of course. I designed her with pink hair, a pink blazer, a black bowl hat, and somewhat of traditional Japanese school gear.
I put together a character turnaround for both outfits.

It was a two part assignment, so aside from character redesign, I chose to create a mini set design. Since Andie's style is so important in the movie, I thought remaking my Andie's room was the way to go.
I built it with cardboard, painted the walls pink, and chose one wall to paint cherry blossoms.

I made a "transparent" window with window seats. I sewed pink cushions. I was all about my hot glue gun for this assignment.

It was a little nervewracking to start creating the furniture along with everything else. I was afraid to ruin proportions. After more research, I jumped right into it. I sewed together a bed with pillows, and made the bed frame out of cardboard. I put together a nightstand and desk and chair with more cardboard. To finish, I made a sliding door.

I went to town with this project, and tried to make it as believable as possible. It was exciting bringing my crafty skills to an illustration assignment. I like it!

It's officially 2014! New years - the one time a year to start fresh.
I talked about my goals yesterday, but I started thinking about my resolution.
I think I want to keep up with saying yes more; many good things can come out of saying yes. I also want to make things happen. That's what's great about life, nothing's impossible.

Ever since I was younger, I always had the mentality of nothing's impossible. Whether I acted on that is a different story, but it was something I always had in the back of my mind. Since we are getting older each day that passes, life is only getting more interesting, it feels important to act on it and treat each day as an adventure.

Ever since I found this fortune years ago (I have a little collection of worthy fortunes, and I also just love eating fortune cookies) my belief seemed legit. It made me believe nothing is impossible, but there is such thing as acts being improbable. They're two different things, it makes sense.

So with that said, I am taking this to heart starting now and I want you all to think about this too. If you believe in doing something, keep trying. Don't give up, even if things don't seem likely to happen, don't shoot down the idea because you never know what will come out of it. It may be something amazing. Life can surprise you like that.
It really never hurts to give anything a try.

To end this post, here's a beautiful Depeche Mode song; one of my favorites. Although it's a love song, it gets the same point across.
Happy new year :)

This year had so many ups and downs. Began nicely and took a big dive until the beginning of the summer. I picked myself up, sorted out my priorities, and life has been wonderful since. Some highlights from 2013 were:
• This semester that had just finished was fantastic and hard as hell. I learned so much.
• I opened myself up to new things: food, music, art methods, etc. I said no a lot less, and in result had fun.
• In the world of friendships, my school friends and I have really became a tight knit group. We're all in the same boat and we all understand each other. We support each other, and I have so much to thank them for. They're keepers.
• I've been trying to begin some kind of career in illustration/the art world, and although it's been a tough one, I've been feeling more and more confident as each day passes and I've been making things happen. I set up a portfolio website, I made a physical portfolio book, I created my own business cards, I've contacted companies to get myself out there for potential freelance jobs. At this point I'm determined and I won't let anything stop me.
• Aside from my potential growing illustration career, at the end of the semester I began an internship at a screen printing company in NYC.

My determination is growing more and more everyday, and with 2013 ending I have so many plans for myself in 2014.
The beginning of 2014 is already booked to be fantastic because I will be visiting Portland for a week!

My goals for 2014:
• Continue with illustration and get as many freelance jobs as possible.
• Work as much as I can and save money.
• Graduate in May!
• Move to Portland in July.
• Create & sell more things for my Etsy store.
• This will be the tough one, but I'd like to get a book deal; I have so much brewing in my head that I'd love to get into a book. An art book, that is. I ain't no writer.
• Grow collections. I have so many art books that I invested in this year and I'd like to see that expand. I'd also like to begin vinyl collection. I got a record player for Christmas which I'm super excited about.
• Mainly, I just wanted to make life happen and be happy, in Portland. Life goal.

I want to make 2014 the year to make things happen. That's my main goal. To make things happen. Here's to a wonderful new year!

MARIAKAY.COM is an official thing!

I bought website space on Go Daddy a few months ago. Took my time getting it up; made like five different layouts before I finally found one I was happy with. Condensed sections, added more pictures, changed the sidebar - so much construction.

Anywho, it's finally my official art portfolio website. Still have plans of adding more of my work within the next few weeks, but it's at a point where it doesn't look empty and that makes me happy.

I also took initiative to start up a new Tumblr filled with my work and crafty things and whatnot. I have another Tumblr in which I use to reblog photos I like. It's more of a inspiration blog (it's come to use SO many times when I needed a push for projects). I wanted to create a Tumblr where I don't reblog and all photos are mine. The only reblogs are music posts and that's it. It's still super fresh, but don't be afraid to follow me!

I was excited to share a major step for me. It's a little nerve-wracking to make a site dedicated to you, but portfolio websites are a thing; they're a thing to help you get noticed and get assigned work. I'm excited for what's to come now that I have my site up and running! Making strides.

Hope you all had a great holiday season! The new year is right around the corner, how exciting!

Every day that passes, the more I feel the need to build a professional name for myself. I wanted to make business cards for myself, so I went down the cheap route. I figured it's not so bad to make my own with the intention of getting professionally printed cards down the road.

I figured the first place to start was with card stock. I visited my local office supply store and bought some. Next, I measured and cut my cards 2 X 3.5 inches.
Afterwards I thought of a simple design and went with it.

I wanted to make my cards look like tags, so I made a little stencil for cut out corners and a cut out circle. I placed the stencil over my cards and colored them in with markers. I picked three colors to add some variety.

After coming up with my logo a little while back, I figured it'd be nice to carry that through to my cards. My friend gave me the idea of carving out little stamps in erasers, so I carved my logo into two separate erasers.

I found my black ink pad and stamped each card with both of my stamps.

When I was through with the front, I found my favorite alphabet stamps and stamped my information on the back. Took quite a while, but I got it done eventually.

Just when I thought I was all done, I decided to add some finishing touches of orange zigzags, which feels like it completes the cards.

I do like how they came out, but I would really like to buy a bulk of professionally printed cards. I have the design all ready to go, but I may have to put those on hold for now. Can't wait to get them printed though!

As the semester is coming to an end, I'll finally get around to posting all things I've been meaning to post for a while. Here is one.

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I bought this denim jacket in early fall. Everyone has had a denim jacket or two in their lives - it really is a style that never dies. When it does die, it always comes back; we can't escape the jean jacket.

There are so many ways to style a jacket to make it your own: studs, rhinestones, patches, graphics, and the list goes on and on.
I wanted to decorate the back of my new jacket. I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I just grabbed a bunch of fabric with all intentions of winging it.

All of a sudden, inspiration hit. I found the fabric I needed, and went along my merry way.

I started sewing minty green patches of fabric on the back to fill up the space as the background. There were two different minty greens, similar in hue, but I didn't care. I liked that random feeling.

I wanted to make somewhat of a 'Japanese rising sun', so I used red fabric with a floral print. I used thin strips of the same fabric for the rays.

To finish up and make it look somewhat complete, I sewed a lace strip on one side. It needed some kind of awkward but a working balance.

And there we go. A fun spiced up denim jacket. If yours is naked, dress it up! Make it fun; make it your own. Do it up.