Meet Maria Blanco

We were lucky to catch up with Maria Blanco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maria, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I developed resilience from an early age. Because of my father’s occupation (he was a university professor) we constantly moved from state to state and often out of the country. Until the last 2.5 years of high school, I never attended a school for more than 2 years. In several cases it was only one year. When we lived outside the United States I had to learn to read and write in another language. Even though I spoke Spanish having been born in Mexico and being raised in a Spanish speaking household, I didn’t know how to read or write Spanish. Going to school several times in Mexico and for 2 years of middle school in Spain was very difficult and required learning to read and write.
The resilience, however, was forged a at deeper level. When you move so often you lose friends overnight, try and make new friends overnight, that requires getting back on your feet quickly after multiple separations. If you sink into sadness because you’ve lost your best friend (again) you can’t adapt to yet another new environment or new people.
Likewise, new cities, new streets, new bus routes require the strength to learn them and adapt quickly firmly to a new situation.
Finally, both my parents were not only immigrants to the US, but each were immigrants in their own right. My mother moved from Costa Rica to Mexico City very young, and my father was a refugee from Franco’s Spain and arrived in Mexico City at the age of 12. This created a household culture of perseverance and adaptability.
Much later as an adult I continued this existence of constant change and lived a couple of years in NYC, close to seven years in Chicago, and four years in Los Angeles.
I lost a 22-year old daughter and that required the most supreme effort of survival. The many lessons of resilience over the years, I believe, somewhat prepared me for this most difficult and horrible life altering event. I started painting as a way to create in the face of death and loss and the turn to painting probably saved my life. I haven’t stopped painting since then. Up until that moment I was an attorney (still am) whose creativity was dedicated to civil rights law and social justice advocacy. The change to primarily being a painter has been very difficult. It has required a changed in how I see myself self and trying to find confidence in a completely new profession.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am now focusing almost exclusively on my painting although I continue to work with non-profits and foundations. I will be participating in my first art fair in San Francisco in March 2025. I am able to sell my art privately even though I am not represented by a gallery. This is due to having studio space in a location shared by other artists who on a weekly basis participate in an art/gallery walk that brings many folks in to see my paintings. With the new presidency, I believe I will have to dust off my civil rights legal skills and participate with particularly helping immigrants.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

A difficult but necessary skill, if it can even be considered a skill, is to have an project confidence. Some people are born with this, but it is also something that can be acquired. I believe that the key to confidence is a firm knowledge of one’s self; our strengths and our weaknesses. Along with this self-knowledge, confidence also requires a firm direction we want to follow. This can change over the years, but having a north star allows us to project a sense of purpose.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My parents gave me confidence and taught me how to think. They treated me from a young age as an equal whose opinions and thoughts were worth listening to. My sister and I were never led to believe that we were in any way inferior intellectually, or too scared or fragile to take risks and seek adventure. Also, by exposing me to many countries and their histories, I learned to see myself in a larger context historically and realize that my privilege required me to give back whenever possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mariablancoart.com
• Instagram: @mariablancogallery2