We’re looking forward to introducing you to marla faith. Check out our conversation below.
marla, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Wake up with coffee, and read Heather Cox Richardson on my email, and peruse the New York Times and the New Yorker. Give my cat his daily medicine, sit down on the cushion to meditate and push the daily news from the foreground. Probably write a poem while I’m there. Drive to a nearby heated vinyassa yoga class or drive a bit furthur to Radnor Lake and walk on Ganier Ridge. Come home and create a beautiful salad for lunch, or meet a friend out for lunch. Return to my home studio and drop into a creative space collaging, drawing, sewing, or oil painting, usually for 3-5 hours. Sometimes quietly, and sometimes with music. Make and eat dinner, and then read till bedtime.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a narrative colorist working in several mediums. Oil paintings of people (occasionally scenes/landscapes) are my more serious/realistic art form. Pencil drawings are an intuitive window into my psyche, filled with personal symbolism. Hand sewn fabric hangings are the more decorative and abstract art that I make. Mixed media collages are my most prolific art form, where I play with found scraps of papers, old drawings, fabrics, beads, and other detritus, which I upcycle into something harmonious.
Other than paints and drawing supplies, my art mainly utilizes found objects, bits and pieces that I can recycle by transformation: colors and textures that want to be together to become visual poetry. Seashells, feathers, teabag fortunes, butterfly wings- all dance together on the page. I work from every angle and upside down, until the composition feels right. Every artwork is unique, I don’t know where it wants to go when I begin, and that journey is a mystical place for me.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Spending a year traveling in Asia when I was in my mid 20s was an awakening in how I saw the world. I will remember women sweeping in front of their poor huts in India, keeping what little they had clean, and then sketching designs with white chalk onto the ground there. This demonstrated to me the satisfaction of bringing beauty and care for everything; one’s little circle can become a peaceful universe. I’d heard previously that ‘it’s not what you do, but how you do it’ that’s important.’
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I believe in a Buddhist way of thinking that we all must endure pain at times, but suffering may be more optional. For instance, 15 years ago, I lost my home in a flood. Rather than be bereft I found a gift in it: so many people reached out to help- to offer places to stay, to try to help save/clean things from the house, etc, that I moved into a state of gratitude to accept the help that was offered. This feeling overpowered the loss. Similarly, 8 years ago I went through a bone marrow stem cell transplant for myleofibrosis (a blood cancer of the bone marrow). I didn’t know if I’d make it out alive or damaged, and went through some harrowing health times right after it. I could have ‘suffered’ through pain and worry, but I chose to embrace whatever the universe presented; to trust in the journey, and once again to live in gratitude; to be aware of all my good fortune- a loving home and friends to help me, a good medical team, etc. Truly I had nothing to complain about. This gift of living in a human body, with consciousness is huge.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
Truth and Love, honesty and beauty. There is no other, there is only Us. I believe in freedom of speech, in kindness and generosity, in compassion for all (every life form and especially nature).
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
I had wanted to teach AP (advanced placement) studio art. For 8 years I taught art to mainly 5th-8th grades (and sometimes AP art history in the high school) at a private girls school. When I was initially hired, my desire was to teach AP studio art. For my 9th year there, I was given that opportunity. I found that I missed the 5th and 6th graders so much. I had fallen in love with the middle school grades and my dream of working with the older girls wasn’t as satisfying. Likewise, there was another private school in town that I always admired, and I was excited to have the opportunity to teach a painting class and drawing class in their high school during the first semester of Covid. The reality of it was so different than what I had built in my imagination. I’m reminded of a saying that my old high school art teacher said so long ago” Big expectations, big disappointments, No expectations, no disappointments.’
Contact Info:
- Website: https://marlafaith.com
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