We recently connected with Maria Camia and have shared our conversation below.

Maria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Last year, I was part of La MaMa’s Puppet Festival in November for the world premiere of my newest spiritual/sci-fi musical called “The Healing Shipment.” During the pandemic and even now, I am overwhelemed with the news and wrote this story to make space for the reality I desire. I want people to know of their power of attention to create what they want to see in the world. The story is about an Extra Terrestrial named Maricama who crashes onto earth in her potato spaceship and she calls her granddaughter from the future to save her. In the meantime, she has to face her now with the phone addicted family she is staying with as she teaches them about the metaphysical universe within and how to reconnect back to nature and community. There are five 6′ tall body costume puppets with the actors’ face at the heart of the puppet to allow the actor to connect with their heart consciousness more than the worrying mind. There are also three 4′ Bunraku one-puppeteer puppets, a giant sun, and various potatoes throughout the show. 15 songs- Musical composition by Aaron Banes and choreography by UJ Mangune. Because I received The Jim Henson Production Grant, NYC Women’s Media and Music Fund, The Puffin Grant, The Miranda Family Grant, and even fundraising on GoFundMe, I was able to hire 20+ people for this show and get the help I needed to make it come to fruition. I am involved in too many roles as I am used to doing everything as I started as a visual artist but overall, this was the biggest and most understood production I have ever had the joy in creating. I am so grateful for my team of amazing POC/Asian/LGBTQ+ individuals. We hope to tour the show in 2025 and onwards!

Maria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Maria Camia and I have dedicated my entire artistic practice to bring and share the colorful world of Aricama, the spiritual/sci-fi land of practice, play, and healing, to our reality. I am a Filipino-American Artist, Director, Playwright, Fashion Designer, and Introspective Hypnosis Practitioner from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and have lived in New York for a decade now. I intend to bridge indigenous ancestry with galactic futurism through my comedic plays, musicals, YouTube videos, comics, clothing, and visual art. I am influenced by Mayan mythology, Vedic astrology, Filipino pre-Spanish colonization herstory to extraterrestrial taboo books such as “Hollow Earth” by Dianne Robbins, “We Are The Arcturians,” by Dr. Norma J. Milanovich, “Your Galactic Neighbors,” by Sheldon Nidle. I look towards more advanced extraterrestrial civilizations and science fiction to imagine a better world for all. I moved to New York in 2013 to get involved in the puppet and theater community and began as an intern at HEREarts then with Basil Twist, Saya Woolfalk, and then receiving a masters at Sarah Lawrence College. Since then, I have been working in the theater world on my own shows and assisting other shows who need a puppeteer, puppet advisor, puppet builder, or a director. The puppet community has the most genuine people I’ve ever met in an art industry.

Since high school, I started to design clothes under the name, MARICAMA, where I combined my first and last names together, so I could be known by one name like Picasso. I now create spiritual clothing where I want all pieces to remind the customer of their inner truth and light as my clothes say phrases like, “Practice Play, More Breath, More Awareness, or Millay Dollar Coochie.” My clothes also have images of women healing women, healing hands, and all things to come back to heart center as everything else in the world like advertisements and media want us to feel less than who we really are.

Since 2019, I began dancing hip hop and KPOP as a hobby and I enjoy sharing that on my Instagram.

In October 2020, I became an Introspective Hypnosis Practitioner. I facilitate clients through their past memories and traumas and help them release that which no longer serves them to make space for their best self. As my work centers around play and healing, I realized that being too fun or happy is not realistic and we have to clean out our baggage to make space for the abundance that awaits us. I balance the playful performance puppetry side with a serious service of cleaning the subconscious mind.

What sets me apart are my rainbow/psychedelic visuals, odd pairings of services (puppetry/fashion/hypnosis/dance/performance), my comedy and catchy songs, and my joy to play the fool. If I can assist the viewer to let go of their old restricting habits and become more playful in life, I have done my job. Everything I do is in service for liberation in both spectacle performance and individual one-on-one cliental. I am proud of my commitment to this Aricama world for over a decade now, my work ethic, and my care to give my best to the people. I take my art as my own spiritual practice and whatever I am tapped into is wiser than me so in part, I am proud that I am learning to grow with my art as it matures me to be a more responsible human, leader, and friend to the masses.

What I want my potential clients to know about me is that even though I am very playful in my theatrical work, I understand the dualities of play and breath. In my hypnosis sessions, I speak calmly and take care to listen to my clients’ needs. I am cautious when it comes to hypnosis as I am trusted to go deep into the unconscious minds of many. I am playful but serious with serious matters. I intend with my work or anyone who follows my work can add more fun and more abundance to their lives while also knowing how to energetically protect and cleanse themselves in this wild world we participate in. If we can help each other be the best first within ourselves, then we can grow a beautiful community together. I am in it that we are here to save ourselves, no one is coming to save us, so let’s do it with grace and joy.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The artist must first be empowered to believe in themselves. Society cannot spoon feed the artist to believe in themselves, that is our job to first. And any inkling or desire to be an artist must be held onto no matter what. However, for an individual to believe in themselves, society must embrace the arts at an early age, specifically during childhood. Children must develop a relationship with an understanding of themselves and their bodies, an understanding of the metaphysical world, and Imagination. Meditation must be taught to all kids, visualization, and energetic cleaning. When I say energetic cleaning, it means releasing the emotional burdens of the day like brushing your teeth at the beginning and end of the day. Energy can be imagined in the form of different colors and shapes and can get stuck in different parts of the body. I learned this as an Introspective Hypnosis Practitioner and see how detrimental that this is still seen as ‘woo woo’ to most. I feel our society profits on us always moving without breathing which keeps consumerism at a high because we are not in touch with our body and feelings. If the arts are well supported along with imagination from an early age, then society will know to support those who CHOOSE to become artists later in life. Those who choose to become an artist are then the ones called forth to sustain creativity and possibility within society. I think the job of an artist is quite difficult and must be nourished.

Supporting artists means to add more flavor to society. This can be done through architecture and the way we set up time via 9-5, or even our calendars and holidays. For example, hospitals always need a mural designer for every floor to contrast the sterile environment and to provide uplifted spirits to the patients. We can have new holidays celebrating the arts or that promote creativity. We could have four day weeks and three day weekends as a norm to provide more leisure time for reset and possibility.

As always, the government can appreciate the arts more with more funding- we are always competing against each other. More opportunities to create a better world must be established. New containers/environments must be created. However, the artist must first believe this is possible and needed.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

My sister, who is now a resident ophthalmologist, reminded me of a conversation her and I had when she was studying for the MCAT. I said, as an artist, I don’t memorize books and get tested on my memorization; I create the books and new worlds for us to live in. The biggest difference between non-creatives and creatives is one works mainly within the systems of this world while the other is channeling and bringing in new ideas or you can say old ideas back to the surface. My work is highly spiritual and playful with a means to make metaphysics less taboo and understood by all. I am a political act to change the social norm. As a creative, since the arts can be seen as frivolous, I take my art with a seriousness to remind the masses of their innate human power.

I spend a lot of time in isolation as a creative; it is a personal relationship to imagination or something beyond the self. We are digging deep into lost territory needing attention. We are equipped with bravery to go deep into emotions and difficult memories to find new perspectives to heal and thrive. Being a creative is honing in on inner strength and following our gut to our interests while also holding foot in the real world with taxes, business models, marketing, applying to grants and jobs, and keeping within schedules. It is both being of this world and of the world beyond and bringing it back for first, the self, then the world to commune in respect for life and death. Sometimes we are more invested in the other world than the comforts of this world, trusting that dedication to the thing beyond us is the comfort we seek. It is a magical job that must be chosen from the fires of the heart and not the worry of the mind. To be a true creative is to believe in you first before anything and anyone else.

In another sense, I also believe all are creative since we are all figuring out how to pay our rent on time but I understand there is a type of mind that is more comfortable in the discomfort of the unknown and spend a lifetime bringing the light to that which has not yet to be seen. May we respect all in their choices of life!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maricama.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/themaricama
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/mariacamia
• Other: www.tiktok.com/themaricama, www.instagram.com/shopmaricama

Image Credits
Richard Termine for the photos without me in it (Photos of The Healing Shipment)