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

Max, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Glad to be here!

First off, let’s explore the concept of “pursuing meaningful projects”.

I mean that’s ultimately the goal right? Sounds pretty easy. The only problem is figuring out what those are.

I’ve been trying to figure it out for the past… how old am I? 33 years? And I am just now starting to get a sense of what’s actually important to me.

This self reflection started in earnest shortly after collapsing with severe vertigo into my groceries one night back in March 2022. The suddenness of it (and how utterly incapacitated the constant motion sickness made me) got me thinking about how fragile life is, though I was still pretty optimistic (I may have broken my lettuce, but not my spirit!). Once I was officially diagnosed with a brain tumor about a month later you can rest assured that any thoughts about fragility of life were now on steroids (like… ACTUALLY on steroids, and if you have ever been prescribed steroids and know the condition of existence I can only describe as “steroid brain” then you’ll know). I spent many a sleepless night as I recovered from my brain surgery thinking about EVERYTHING (literally anything and everything – and I don’t say “literally” lightly) and trying to wrap my overactive “I don’t have enough time” paranoid brain around it ALL.

After a great many lists and a great many one-sided rants to my wife (I love you Amelia, and thank you for always listening) I finally set out upon the train of thought where I asked myself “what would you do if you only had a year left to live?”

This brought me back to all those “big idea” projects that flit through your head over the course of your life. You know the ones. Those ideas you feel you’ll get to eventually. The ideas you think will be great as soon as you level up *blank* skill just a little more.

Now, not ALL of these are meaningful projects… but, if you look closely, you can start to recognize some of the tell tale signs that something might just have deeper meaning for you. Who knows… you might even find the common thread. That essence of what YOUR work means to YOU.

For me, I kept coming back to a few lingering book projects that I had been working on for years (and in the process, discovering that the most important thing for me is to tell MY OWN stories). I decided to forego all other art work and just GET THEM DONE (a luxury I could afford having a “regular” 9-5 job and not having to rely on my artwork to pay the bills… yet; firmly keeping that dream alive!)

Since then, I have completed over 20 paintings for an illustrated edition of H.P. Lovecraft’s story Pickman’s Model (which is a project I’ve been itching to revisit for over a decade!) as well as made some serious progress writing a short horror novella (also illustrated) about my late Grandfather’s experience as a Marine in the Pacific during WW2 (except it’s a ghost story, because of course it is).

I am also in the process of illustrating ANOTHER short horror story of my own, titled “MUMMY.” and am awaiting the release of another short Lovecraftian tale I wrote titled “The Dreamers” which is due out later this year.

Max, 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 Max Martelli and I am an author and artist exploring the realms of both classic and cosmic horror. Painting with a range of media from oil and acrylic to digital, I have been working independently since my graduation from the New England School of Art and Design in 2011.

Having grown up in a house full of artists (no really, they’re pretty much ALL artists) it was always a foregone conclusion that I would pursue art in some way or another.

After graduating with a BFA in 2011, I started off on my freelance illustration journey (coupled with playing bass full time in a blues rock band; it was fun, we traveled to SXSW and met Pauly Shore, it was a weird time). After about a year of being tugged in two creative directions I decided to focus a bit more on my art portfolio (I wasn’t quite being hired for the right stuff) and ended up needing to start working full time which certainly has its pros and cons when it comes to ALSO having an art career (this has taken me on a journey through the wonders of big box retail, fine art framing, and finally, university administration).

After about 7 or 8 years of plodding along and trying to keep my art momentum going I finally found the opportunity to escape from a really abusive relationship and dive back into my painting (Ya, I’ll overshare a bit, it was an unhealthy relationship that ultimately didn’t allow me to be me for faaar too long).

At this point my artwork consisted mainly of pop horror and classic movie monsters (a staple for vending your artwork at markets in Salem MA through October) but I was painfully off track in regards to anything really meaningful.

Since 2020, after meeting my (now) wife, fellow artist Amelia Leonards, we have been on a journey together, wading into the illustration community (a community I had been a part of peripherally, but always on the outskirts… recall that previous relationship, explosive jealousy is not great for a career that wants you to meet people and network). The community was always striking to me for it’s welcoming nature and everyone’s general excitement for everyone else and their work (a far cry from the fine art world in some circles).

(I also need to take a moment, as an aside, to say how supportive this community can be in light of an event such as what happened to me next…)

Fast forward a little bit and BAM, out of no where I discover I have a brain tumor (after a month of dealing with misdiagnosed vertigo no less; perpetual motion sickness is NOT FUN!). To make a long story short, I had brain surgery and radiation, and throughout my recovery did a WHOLE LOT of existential questioning about myself and what was most important to me (besides living happily with my wife).

I started to narrow down those few projects that have stuck with me through the years (some all the way from college), and began to discover a bit about WHY I create and what stories I have to tell before my time is up.

As of this writing I have now completed over 20 illustrations for my illustrated edition of H.P. Lovecraft’s story “Pickman’s Model” (you can pre-order the book here: bit.ly/pickman-preorder) and am in the process of writing and illustrating 2 original stories which I am documenting over on Patreon:

“Mummy.” – A heavily illustrated short story about an old paintmaker guiltily ruminating about the untimely death of his wife and what he discovers as he cracks open a sarcophagus to make one more batch of that infamous color, Mummy Brown.

“Haunted” – A short illustrated novella inspired by my late Grandfather’s experiences as a Marine in the Pacific during WW2. After being attacked by and killing a Japanese soldier in close combat he is subsequently haunted by the man until circumstances bring him to the brink of death and he confronts the ghost.

In addition, my dark tale “The Dreamers” about an artist plagued by lingering cryptic dreams of flayed men, an ethereal woman, and a masked vision of himself, is due to be published later this year.

You can follow all of these projects through my Patreon here: www.patreon.com/maxmartelliart

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

This is a question that I would have had a lot of trouble answering even just last year.

When I first hit the illustration scene and tried my hand at freelance, I felt painfully pulled in too many directions. I was so bogged down by trying to find any and all jobs that would even HIRE me that I couldn’t rightly focus on WHY I was doing what I was doing.

I felt like there was some trial by fire I had to pass through to eventually start getting the kind of work I wanted… except, when you don’t have time to actually CREATE the kind of work you want to do, it’s pretty impossible to get hired for it. All the jobs I managed to get were off brand and unsuitable for my portfolio. The driving push for me to create art at all had become explicitly MONEY, which didn’t quite feel right, even though I wanted this as a career. I felt like there needed to be some other driving force behind WHY I wanted to be an artist.

After shutting down all freelance work to focus on my portfolio I was immediately hit by the dumbfounding and infinitely open ended question “what are you gonna paint?”

My attempts at figuring this out brought me through the better part of the next decade with barely enough finished quality work to count on two hands. (There were some extremely stressful life issues that got in the way during this time but still… when I had the time to paint, I couldn’t figure out what to do).

I will say that during this time I started doing something I hadn’t done in years. WRITE. A few ideas came to mind. Then a few more. I was actually excited about something. It felt like all my other paintings were just explorations of technique. They didn’t say anything. But when I started storyboarding and plotting for a book, all of a sudden, the illustration served the story. It BECAME the story.

But these were all projects so large they couldn’t possibly be finished. Not with the time I had. I kept them off to the side and poked them when I could.

Once I exited the stifling relationship I was in, met my wife, and almost died from a brain tumor (it’s been a really intense few years guys) I was forced to really evaluate what was most important to me. This is where that saying of “pursue meaningful projects” comes back. Painting for painting’s sake was fun enough but it didn’t fulfill me like working on my books did.

To make a long story short (too late, I’m Italian… I know, I TALK) the main goal or mission of my creative journey is to tell stories (Italian cheering!). My OWN stories.

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

I spent most of my college years learning the nitty gritty of illustration and imaginative realism through constant reading and research. Diligently constructing imagined scenes through the use of reference and inference based on extensive study (see James Gurney’s book “Imaginative Realism” to learn more). The only problem was that I was in a fine arts program and the type of illustration I was interested in was just… not there (probably should have listened to the advice from my freshman year final review and gone to a different school but I couldn’t, I had followed my girlfriend to that school, my Venus is in Taurus, I couldn’t help it).

Since I wasn’t quite learning what I needed, I sucked up everything I could on painting and illustrating. Books, videos, art talks. I felt like my knowledge ABOUT painting far exceeded my technical skill. In looking back, I think that’s ultimately why I always put off the final painting stage for so long each time I started something new. I would envelope myself in the prep work. Research, reference, thumbnailing, sketching, revising. I even pre-mixed all my colors and recorded their ratios and formulas so I could recreate them later (can you tell I’m a Capricorn rising?)

Did any of this result in better artwork? The short answer is… not really.

There were moments of good painting that shone through for sure (nice brushwork, decent values, interesting color), but ultimately my compositions were stiff, sparse, and waay too reliant on photographic reference. All problems that can be solved by… practice. Physically DOING the thing CAN and WILL get you BETTER at doing the THING. You can only advance so far by osmosis.

Now, what did I have to unlearn? This penchant I had towards OVERPLANNING. In the years where I didn’t produce much work (due to life and time available) I tried to stick to subjects that required very little in the way of planning such as classic movie monsters (but even then, I planned FAR more than necessary). I started to adopt drawing habits inherently built to keep myself from thinking too hard. I took up ink drawing and specifically skipped any prep work. Just ink on bare paper. All of this helped to free me up for when I finally started painting more. I started a series of quick monochrome horror portraits for a client and used it as an opportunity to shoot from the hip with my acrylics for the first time ever. This led almost directly into me taking up my “Pickman’s Model” project which was also planned to be UNplanned if that makes sense. No thumbnails, no sketches (well… mostly). Dozens of paintings later and I think I’ve finally proved to myself that I can do the thing.

P.S. – The next stage of this of course, is to assess your strengths and weaknesses and find a mix of planned/unplanned that keeps you fresh, keeps you consistent, and keeps you completing paintings. So, what I RElearned from my UNlearning is to do some thumbnails (more than you think you need), and it wouldn’t kill you to do a value study or two. Just note that whatever you do, don’t ever record your color mixes in minute detail, making swatches and writing formulas, you aren’t baking a cake, and this isn’t rocket science.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.maxmartelli.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/maxmartelliart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/maxmartelliart
• Other: www.patreon.com/maxmartelliart