We recently connected with Marissa Molina and have shared our conversation below.

Marissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I am proud to say that for the past ten year’s I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work, and, more importantly, am at a stage in my creative endeavors allowing me to thrive artistically. From having five jobs at once teaching art after-school and various martial arts programs, I shifted to creating murals full time and working collaboratively with the community through a nonprofit called Thrive Collective. Today, I am the Mural Program Art Director for that nonprofit, I take mural and painting commissions privately and have even been commissioned from shows like Harlem from Prime Video for their premiere event. It’s wild being a part of the events and opportunities I am because my art has brought me to those venues. The fact that my art is all over the five boroughs of New York is a dream come true. Looking back and realizing that a large majority of my adult life I have been working within a creative field, I also realized, I haven’t always appreciated that fact because I simply wasn’t at the the point I wanted to be at. It has been a strong journey of reflection and pivoting that has allowed me to get this place of momentum, success, and excitement in my career and life overall as an artist.

Knowing what I know now, it is pretty clear that the biggest thing holding me back was not being conscious about the direction of my life. When I was graduating from college, I had become a finalist for RISD’s grad school program. I was excited about the prospect but unfortunately missed my in-person interview due to a para-tonsilar abscess. This was a really critical point in my life- I didn’t get into the school i had wanted, I graduated, and ended up working for code enforcement for sanitation for a year only to partially tear my ACL doing martial arts. It was the day that I had gotten written up for being late because I fell in my leg brace trying to rush up stairs to clock in at a job that didn’t matter to me that I stopped just going through the motions. I vowed to never work a job that wasn’t art related, quit and got into grad school. From there I reintegrated into the art community, began making wearable art, and started to create my first murals.
Since the I never stopped hustling. Using my teaching experience brought me into a space that allowed me to really develop myself as a muralist and leader. Those opportunities brought me on projects where I got to grow as an artist and put me in public view. Over the past few years since then I have from time to time course corrected because I also have the habit of putting all of my energy into things for others to make them happen. The more I’d stop and consider my next goals, I got the progress I wanted and saw what was possible if I really put my energy toward myself.

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?

For those who don’t know me, I am Marissa Molina – aka Minhafofa ( pronounced mean- yuh foe-fuh), which is built of of my capoeira name (fofa). I am a New York based multidisciplinary artist who creates vibrant and playful large-scale paintings, indoor and outdoor murals, and wearable sculptures. My art is fueled by a profound interest in people, so I have a huge focus on showcasing people merged with the objects, energies, and environments that embody them. Growing up with a father who rose out of extreme poverty in El Salvador who came to work in various positions in the sanitation field; I’ve had an in-depth view of people’s tumultuous relationship with possessions. People yearn for more yet consistently dispose of different parts of their lives, and all the while that journey through objects leaves us with a beautiful trail of history and insight. Rightfully so, my initial language for amplifying people’s personalities was strongly through objects. As time has progressed, however, my portraiture has shifted to where it is now, with even more bright colors and energy with a focus on confidence and pride in the characters themselves. Hair and braids specifically have become integral in telling their stories and setting the stage for each character, where it becomes larger than life and often transforming into different elements.

I got into Murals and collaborative work during Grad School, when I had volunteered to paint a mural in Coney Island back in 2013 and through the wearable art I was creating. The wearables are made out of found objects and were my way of letting people try on different personalities, different moods and play in that different realm. Essentially, I was bringing my paintings into the 3D world and letting people bring them to life. I was always interested in work that pushed boundaries, was interactive, and integrated into its setting the transition to Murals was a really perfect avenue for me. I really like the public aspect and the way it transforms a space. I am really proud of the work I have created with students and the community as well as all of the murals I have been commissioned to do through out the city. When it comes to painting so I really like to replicate the way murals blend into the wall and namely work on plexi glass. As I continue to grow as an artist the more I want to continue to evolve each medium I work in and push the interactive element of them all.

Currently I take commissions for murals and portraits and it can be on a variety of surfaces. I’m very good at capturing the essence of a person or a feeling that one wants to give off. I love creating bright work that inspires people and brings fun and joy to a space. I’m a fast painter and I think that energy itself is captured in my work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is connecting with other people and changing their mood for the better. My work is very positive. I want to leave people with uplifted and inspired spirits. There is enough negativity in the world that I’d rather create that good energy and share it with as many people as I can. The beauty of art is that it has that ability to shift moods and affect people across so many boundaries. Especially working with the public as I do or when selling things at shows or conventions, it’s really amazing to see other people who have never encountered my work see it and get moved. And especially with my mural work I get to become a part of each community that I work in and just continue to grow that connection. Art really opens the avenue to relate to so many different people.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The underlying constant mission in my art is definitely spreading color, vibrancy, and play whenever I can. I want people to be inspired, to see things differently, and feel celebrated all at once since people are my biggest inspiration artistically. At the same time I’ve come to shift from creating work that was solely playful and representative of specific people to creating more inclusive made up characters that embody different qualities. Currently I strive to create powerful , bad ass women ( although not exclusively) and celebrate different hairstyles because they are not celebrated enough. I grew up as one of the only mixed Hispanic girls in a very white town and too often held myself back to hide my shine because I already stood out too much from an early age. This is another reason the way we present ourselves and the way we are perceived intrigues me so much and have caused me to focus on bringing that strength to be oneself so fiercely in my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.marissamolinaart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/minhafofa