Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mariateresa Ortiz-naretto. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

MariaTeresa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I do hope that my legacy will be that throughout my artworks the viewer think about nature, love, and self-awareness. My artworks usually revolt around a theme that I take as an excuse to explore my sentiments and thinking. And that is always about my consciousness on nature. To me, nature is absolutely everything: ideas, bodies, our planet, the universe.

Strongly, I believe that my artworks are a mirror of myself. But that mirror, though, is not so far away of every self. Art gives me that opportunity of trying to dig into human nature. At the very core of being human, I think our fears and happiness, our hates and love, our agonies and compassion, and our pains and endurance display flavors and colors quite easily to assume as the feelings of anyone and everyone else.

I do not see any mystical tone on my artworks. Yet, there is something that always trap me into the feeling that my search could be actually someone else’s. The stories, the colors, and the textures of my paintings are just the fingerprints of ideas, which I strive for them to remain on their own as belonging to anyone.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a New Jersey based artist, who was born in Rancagua, Chile, and soon after raised in two countries, Argentina and Chile. By conserving the last names of my parents, I praise my fascinating multicultural background that led me to immerse in drawing and painting, art history, and philosophy studies. These perspectives determine my paintings with profuse impasto, flat surfaces, and vivid colors, a style that far from being eclectic results in unique images of nature, myths, human figures, and portraits.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I became full time artist the day that I accepted that my life couldn’t continue as it was any longer. I was returning from Rutgers University to my home. The anguish of getting nowhere was so excruciating. I grabbed a pencil with my right fist and stamped on a small notebook the first poignant trace. Soon after, it transformed into a beautiful sketch in which I understood my undeniable destiny: I am an artist since I remember myself.

In 2017, I embraced again the artistic career that I have abandoned so many times in the past. But this time was different. Even though I have faced many obstacles to maintain my studio and art production, every time that I decided it was for my greater good to let my dreams go a new door opens in front of my eyes. I am a full-time artist because fate doesn’t give me another choice. My children, close friends, and supporters hold me firm to keep painting every day. Wondering how I maintain that is just futile because I know that every finished painting is thanks to them.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This is an interesting question. I am always studying and exploring Art when I feel that there are missing pieces in my creative journey. I still take courses and dedicate a huge amount of time to my self-improvement. I think I have taken my journey in that manner during my whole life because I am always visiting museums, galleries, libraries, studying, and enjoying nature. So, when I believe that something is missing, I just go for it. That is the reason why I do not have any regrets, even though I have had multiple delays in my artistic production throughout my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mtonpaintings.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mton_193/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariateresa.ortiznaretto.1

Image Credits

These images are my paintings.