Marie Martello
I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember—but I didn’t always know it was allowed to be mine. Raised in chaos and contradiction, I learned early how to observe the world without fully being seen by it. Painting became a place to unearth the things I couldn’t say out loud: grief, rage, softness, desire. My work is rooted in self-portraiture, not as an act of vanity, but as a way to document the inner lives we’re told to keep quiet—especially as women. I’m drawn to the tension between beauty and discomfort, the sacred and the messy. Each piece is a negotiation between what I feel and what I dare to show. My current body of work explores themes of vulnerability, societal expectation, and the contradiction of being too much and never enough at the same time. My long-term goal is to make a living through my art—to leave the service industry and build a life where creative expression is not a luxury, but a foundation. This is my offering: imperfect, honest, and alive.
What Marie Does
Medium: Painting
Services: Commissions, Teaching Artist
Activity with DAC: EMERGE Artist
I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember—but I didn’t always know it was allowed to be mine. Raised in chaos and contradiction, I learned early how to observe the world without fully being seen by it. Painting became a place to unearth the things I couldn’t say out loud: grief, rage, softness, desire. My work is rooted in self-portraiture, not as an act of vanity, but as a way to document the inner lives we’re told to keep quiet—especially as women. I’m drawn to the tension between beauty and discomfort, the sacred and the messy. Each piece is a negotiation between what I feel and what I dare to show. My current body of work explores themes of vulnerability, societal expectation, and the contradiction of being too much and never enough at the same time. My long-term goal is to make a living through my art—to leave the service industry and build a life where creative expression is not a luxury, but a foundation. This is my offering: imperfect, honest, and alive.
What Marie Does
Medium: Painting
Services: Commissions, Teaching Artist
Activity with DAC: EMERGE Artist
I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember—but I didn’t always know it was allowed to be mine. Raised in chaos and contradiction, I learned early how to observe the world without fully being seen by it. Painting became a place to unearth the things I couldn’t say out loud: grief, rage, softness, desire. My work is rooted in self-portraiture, not as an act of vanity, but as a way to document the inner lives we’re told to keep quiet—especially as women. I’m drawn to the tension between beauty and discomfort, the sacred and the messy. Each piece is a negotiation between what I feel and what I dare to show. My current body of work explores themes of vulnerability, societal expectation, and the contradiction of being too much and never enough at the same time. My long-term goal is to make a living through my art—to leave the service industry and build a life where creative expression is not a luxury, but a foundation. This is my offering: imperfect, honest, and alive.
What Marie Does
Medium: Painting
Services: Commissions, Teaching Artist
Activity with DAC: EMERGE Artist