We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marie Alvizo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marie, thanks for joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

I actually still have the first dollar I earned as a creative. I was so proud of myself for actually selling a piece of my work that I couldn’t bring myself to spend it. I made the money in July, 2017, between my 9th and 10th grade years.I was only fifteen at the time and even though I was young, I already had such a passion for creating art. I grew up in a small town in Arkansas and never really thought I’d sell anything to the people here. In school, people thought I was talented but that I was wasting my talents on all the weird things I drew. A close family friend even told me that I should take up drawing deer, fish, and other naturalistic things because those would actually sell. I knew they were probably right and that my art wasn’t likely to find ground locally, but I decided to take the leap anyways and began looking for a way to sell my art. Every year my hometown celebrates the Peach Festival to commemorate our peach harvest. It’s a lovely little family-friendly event that features turtle racing, talent shows, live performances, and all sorts of peach-themed food items. Growing up going to the peach festival had me certain: this is where I needed to take my leap of faith. I have to admit my first year was pretty lackluster. Really the only products that I had were shitty stickers and poorly framed original work, but I somehow managed to make a bit of profit. All the work that not only I had put in, but my parents who supported me the whole way, had paid off. People loved my work! After the Peach Festival, my stickers littered the little town. They were on binders, cars, phone cases, cameras, laptops, you name it! My teachers even began to invest in me and hung my artwork up pridefully in their homes. With this one local event, I managed to get myself a cult following that always managed to buy something whenever I had anything to sell. Their dedication and love to me and my art has always motivated me to keep going. From here I continued to sell at local conventions and festivals throughout my high school years. My school newspaper even went on to write an article about me and my entrepreneurial endeavors. I figured that if I could sell my work and get such a loyal following in a small Arkansas town, then I could do it absolutely anywhere.

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?

So I guess a little bit about myself is I’m a Mexican non-binary artist that’s originally from California, but who grew up in a small Arkansas town. I went to school at the Savannah College of Art and design for illustration where I just absolutely pushed myself in every way that I could. I love toys, fashion, and horror. I feel like that’s pretty obvious when someone is looking at work. How did I get into my industry? It was actually me sort of stumbling into it. It was my junior year of college and our career fair was right around the corner. I really had no idea what I wanted to do and I didn’t feel that I was good enough at anything to really dive into a market. My compositions were weak, I didn’t completely understand color theory, and my perspective desperately needed some work. My friends and I were sitting in our dorm, looking at the list of employers for the career fair. While everyone was researching the companies they wanted to meet with, I decided to just sign up with Mattel. I liked dolls and I thought everyone would pay more attention to the video game and animation companies so I could probably get an interview with them. Afterwards, I went on LinkedIn and I started friending anyone that I possibly could that worked at Mattel. I mean I didn’t want to look like a loser with just one connection on LinkedIn during the career fair. Eventually one of the senior designers from the monster high team actually reached out to me. She said that she thought my portfolio had potential for toy design and that I would be perfect for monster high. I had actually never considered toy design before. Obviously there were people that designed toys, but I never really thought it was a job that I could go into. I was so excited about the idea of working for Monster High, especially since the line was such an inspiration to me growing up. The dolls were my core toys as a child. I just related to them so much since I was bullied a lot and kind of an outcast in school, they were like my solace. So when she said that, I was so over the moon. I couldn’t believe that I could actually work for monster high. And it was actually because of her that I even got into toys at all. I would never have gotten that internship without her, so I made sure that I did not disappoint. Now I’m going to be working full-time there and I honestly couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.

As far as the types of creative works I provide, I mostly create illustrations. I love mixing childhood wonder with the darker aspects of life. I mainly work digitally, but I do indulge in traditional mediums from time to time. I love using bright colors and simple compositions.
The type of problems that I solve for clients… Since discovering toy design, I’ve become really passionate about it. In school, I tried to compete in design competitions and revolve them around toy design. I tried to test myself with my toy design abilities so whenever I’m designing for a toy I try to think of something that would actually really help a kid, whether mentally physically. I just want kids to be able to see themselves in the toys that I create. I want them to be able to relate to them in some way and feel seen and feel heard. And to be able to grow up knowing that there are not less than any other person.
I think the thing that I am most proud of is honestly my internship with Monster High. I feel like that is my biggest brag I will ever have in my life. I’m just so proud of myself and my parents for being able to get me to that point.
One thing that I want people to know about me and my brand is that I will never again try to conform myself to what other people want from me. My art is always going to be what I want to do and what I like and it’s not gonna be for anyone else. I love that people love my work and love it so much that they want to purchase it. But I will never let myself get to a point where I am designing or creating simply to sell a piece of work. So just know that with everything that I create, it’s something that’s always gonna be part of me.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was making art in order to appease someone else. Growing up, I was bullied a lot for my interests since they weren’t what “normal girls” typically liked and I bullied myself a lot for liking things that were for “normal girls”. I went from drawing gorey, horror illustrations to pretty fashion girls and back and forth. I liked drawing pretty fashion girls, but I hated that I was drawing them because someone had bullied me into drawing them. I hated that I couldn’t draw gorey things anymore because someone told me it wasn’t right. Even when I got to college, it seemed like I could never draw the right subject matter to appease both myself and my professors. It took me going through my Monster High internship, which was the culmination of all interests, to realize that I didn’t have to try to appease anyone but myself with my work. Sure I would get critiqued on design choices and technical aspects of my work, but I was never criticized on what was fundamentally me. I had the freedom to draw what I wanted, but the mentors made sure that I was doing it to the best of my ability. After my internship is when I really found my artistic voice. I finally had a professor for my senior year that gave me the freedom to do what I wanted with the guidance to make it the best it could be.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal that is always driving me is the goal to be successful enough for me to be able to provide for my parents. They have sacrificed everything they have to put me through college. They’ve worked their whole lives just to give my siblings and I the lives they never had. They have always supported me in whatever I do and will always continue to support me. Even now as I begin my life independent of them, they assure me that if it’s ever too much for me, I can always come home. All I want is to make them proud and be able to give them their dream of living in a houseboat in Marina del Rey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://partyteethcreations.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partyteethcreations/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-marie-alvizo-70428219b/