Meet Marisa Ware of Marisa Aragón Ware Studios in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marisa Ware.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Marisa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in Boulder, CO. From a young age, I always loved drawing, painting, and making things with my hands, yet it never occurred to me that I could pursue art as a career. I got my undergrad degree from CU in Journalism and then started working at the business section at the Rocky Mountain News. After I had been working there for a year, the newspaper closed down and for the first time in my life I didn’t know what the next step was. I ended up going on a month long Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat (I’ve been practicing Tibetan Buddhism since I was in high school) and it was there that I realized that I was meant to be an artist. Though I had no formal training in art, I always carried around a sketchbook with me, and at the retreat, people started noticing my drawings and responding to them. I talked to the teacher of the retreat and told him I felt called to pursue art but that I also wanted to be of service to the world. He told me that art is a high form a service and asked me to promise him that I would pursue it. I did and never looked back.

Within a year, I moved to San Fransisco to receive my MFA from the Academy of Art. Many of the students in the graduate program had been studying art since high school and had an undergraduate degree in art as well. I had zero formal training but I made up for it with my enthusiasm and discipline. I learned a tremendous amount during those years and started to get freelance illustration work while I was still in school. I also started being invited to participate in gallery shows.

Since then, my career has gained momentum and I regularly exhibit in galleries across the country, from New York to San Fransisco. I’ve worked for illustration clients such as Disney, Gallo Wines, and Safeway, as well as doing album art and concert posters for bands such as The String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Polish Ambassador, and Ayla Nereo and events such as Arise Festival and Sonic Bloom. I also work as a tattoo artist and have been getting into murals and public art.

My first children’s book, “Where’s Buddha?” that I wrote and illustrated was published by Shambhala Publications in February 2019 and I am currently under contract for a second book. Here’s a link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wheres-Buddha-Marisa-Arag%C3%B3n-Ware/dp/1611805872

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There is an inherent struggle in making art and being a creative person. There’s certainly the struggle to make money and to feel like an appreciated part of a society that doesn’t necessarily value the time intensive process of art making. There is also the internal struggle to make the truest and best work that I am capable of making. I have learned over the years that doubt and fear will always be a part of the process, and while there is no way to eliminate their discouraging voices, I don’t have to put stock in them or listen when they pipe up. I’ve observed that oftentimes I feel doubt and fear when I am in the midst of having an artistic breakthrough, so now when I start doubting whether or not the piece I’m working on is any good, I know that I am most likely about to level up.

I think that being an artist takes a tremendous amount of bravery, whether or not you make a career out of it. It’s an incredibly vulnerable thing to mine into the depths of your own psyche and imagination, and then present that personal vision to the public to like or dislike, to ridicule or to praise. I often feel like my choice to be an artist and to make labor intensive work is a rebellion against the norm of this society that idolizes speed, materialism, and money above all else. To engage in work that takes a lot of time is a small way that I swim against the stream of this hurried and speed-obsessed culture. Choosing a career that is notoriously hard to become financially successful in is another way I have chosen meaning over materialism. I feel like I am keeping something ancient and meaningful alive in my work that is otherwise ignored and undervalued in our modern world.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My work is multifaceted.

I’m a freelance illustrator who does a wide variety of work such as textile design, packaging illustration, event posters and book covers. My favorite recent illustration work was for Alpine Provisions, another local company. I did all of their packaging illustrations which included six Colorado animals drawn in a geometric and almost psychedelic stylized fashion. Here’s a link to their site: https://pangeaorganics.com/pages/alpine-home
My illustration work tends to either be pen and ink or I also scan my hand drawn pieces and then color them in Photoshop.

I also am a fine artist and I make paper sculptures that I show around the country and sell to private collectors.

I also write and illustrate children’s books and occasionally I work as a tattoo artist. I also have taught drawing at CU.

I’m going to attach my artist statement here- I think it’ll answer the rest of this question well.

Artist Statement

Having been born and raised in Boulder, CO, I garnered a deep appreciation for nature from a childhood spent roaming the forests and meadows of the Rocky Mountains. I would often go hiking with my scientist father who knew the names of all the plants, as well as which were edible and which were poisonous. We would crouch down to study the subtle identifying differences in flower petals or to inspect the anatomy of an earthworm. I learned how to catch snakes, identify the most poisonous of mushrooms, and most importantly, how to pay attention to details and appreciate ordinary beauty.

These formative experiences heavily influenced my perception of the world and forever formed me into a passionate environmentalist. Connecting with nature has always been effortless for me, and I see now that this leisure time exploring the forests as a child was a privilege that not everyone was granted. Most people in our modern culture are cut off from the natural world, and therefore unaware of the immeasurable benefits of spending time in the woods, the desert, the beach, or any solitary, wild place. This disconnect is not only a disservice to our very humanity, but it also causes a lack of care and concern in how we as a culture relate to the environment.

There is no issue more pressing in our world right now than climate change. In addition, there are the myriad of linked catastrophes of deforestation, plastic pollution clogging and killing the ocean, and the inevitable mass extinction of species. I believe that as long as people remain disconnected from nature, these issues will not be addressed with the zeal that is needed in order to halt the advance of environmental destruction.

Through my work, I strive to depict the magic of the natural world that is so obvious and clear to me in order to help others connect with, and therefore cultivate care for, the environment. Whether that is through researching endangered species and then creating imagery to raise awareness or through making delicate paper sculptures depicting the intricate beauty of an ordinary forest floor, I attempt to awaken the viewer to the reality of the world we are living in, where so much is at stake.

In my research, I’ve studied work by writers such as Yale Professor Stephen R. Kellert who coined the theory of biophilia. His theory asserts that human dependence on nature extends far past our material and physical sustenance. He writes that this dependence includes “a human craving for aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual meaning and satisfaction.” Our abilities to think, feel, communicate, create, and find meaning in life are all wrapped up in this intrinsic connection to nature, which was forged during our evolutionary development.

Taking this into consideration, it is alarming to note that according to a study conducted by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, over half of American adults report spending five hours or fewer outside in nature each week, and 25% spend fewer than two.

If a connection with nature is a necessary piece of a human’s ability to find spiritual meaning and satisfaction, and if most Americans rarely spend time outside, it is not surprising that we as a culture deal with depression, anxiety, and mental illness on a widespread level. When someone is viewing my work, it is my intention to access the part of their brain that was forged through evolutionary development to connect with nature. Whether this remembered connection will inspire them to get outside or to care more about the plethora of environmental issues facing our planet, I cannot say, yet it my hope that it will do so.

What were you like growing up?
I have a scanned drawing that I did when I was five of a unicorn wearing a bikini and leg warmers standing in a field of tulips underneath a rainbow. There’s a huge smiling sun with long eyelashes overlooking the whole scene. While most kids would put a few rays coming off of the sun, I can still recall how I employed the full force of my focus in order to draw maybe forty or fifty radiating lines coming off the sun. I was already interested in detail and lines.

My other most proud creation from my childhood are a series of tiny people I made out of twigs and leaves that I still have in a special box on my shelf. I call them the Leaf People, and they are pretty amazing. No one suggested I make these little people, it was something that I came up with entirely on my own and spent a whole afternoon working away on. I see now that creating was always a part of who I naturally am.

I also started studying classical violin when I was two and a half and that was a huge part of my childhood. I played in orchestras, did recitals and even competed.

I was a voracious reader and loved learning about mythology. I read everything I could find about Greek mythology and was particularly intrigued by Artemis, goddess of the moon and wild animals. I was convinced that I had magical powers and was always trying to figure out how to cast spells and be a witch. I spent a lot of time playing outside, particularly in a circle of boulders in my backyard. I would pretend to be a medicine woman or a shaman and I would concoct potions and store them in empty film canisters. Looking back now, I see what a rich world of imagination I created for myself.

I had a pet raccoon named Phoenix who was my best friend and would ride around on my shoulders. We would go on adventures together. She was an incredibly special animal and I think it was partly because of her that I have such a deep connection to and love for wild animals.

Oh, one more story. I had a night light that was a life sized white goose. Every night my dad would put an egg under it while I was sleeping, so I truly believed that every night, Goosie came to life and laid eggs. I see now how much of an effect that had on my imagination and my perception of the world- that there is more to this world than just a physical realm, and that extraordinary things are possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marisaware.com
• Phone: 303-817-1659
• Email: marisaware@gmail.com

Image Credit:
Photo credit for the portrait of me is Edica Pacha

Photo credit for the paper sculptures is Michael Allen

All other images are courtesy of Marisa Aragón Ware

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