Maria Molteni, multimedia/interdisciplinary artist
Boston, MA
I'm a multimedia/interdisciplinary artist. My work is conceptual, formal, socially engaged, deeply researched, collaborative, contemplative and mystical. I don’t believe in genre or media divisions. Some forms it takes are large scale painting and mural work, inflatable sculpture, movement, performance, print and installation. It's queer, radical and feminist in nature as well.
Aside from your creative work do you have any additional source of income?
These days I'm a self employed freelance artist pretty much full time. I do a lot of site specific installations and murals. I'm most known for my large scale public basketball court murals and community programs through a collective I founded called New Craft Artists in Action (NCAA). In the past, I've worked many different jobs often at once- food service, art handling, beekeeping and honey markets, design, youth and teen education, higher education. I've also done many paid socially engaged artists residencies with youth, teens and college students.
Who do you live with and how do you feel about that?
I live alone going on 2 years now and I feel SO grateful for that. I keep kinda crazy nocturnal hours and I'm always on deadlines with my artwork. I live in an open studio layout so I don't have to pay for a separate studio and it works so much better than tip toeing around a roommate!
How are you spending your time?
Honestly, I've been scrambling to play catch up almost the full time. I've had SO many unfinished projects sitting on my to-do list for years. It's hard to stay on top everything with the constant life hustle. I redesigned and updated my website, built a new website for my collective and moved 10 years of documentation from our old blog. I've been trying to read books and listen to podcasts to prepare for other projects I had on the books. I was really struggling to find the creative time I needed to spend on them. The administrative aspects just eat away at my work sometimes. Believe it or not I've only watched 2 movies the whole time (not even a show). I don't know why I've felt too anxious to sit down and choose what I might like to get addicted to. haha. I'm also part of a couple of book clubs- reading Innana with Ariana Reines and The Parable of the Sower with Tomashi Jackson. A very generous friend of mine who runs a store called Hauswitch in Salem also commissioned me to build an installation their window while the store is closed to the public. I'm really hoping to make some time for painting soon. I still haven't gotten down my list of to-dos to make time for more creative flow.
How is the pandemic impacting you?
I believe I actually had the virus at the very beginning of quarantine. Since I live in Boston, I think it's been in our city earlier than we originally thought. I also lost all of the commissions I had on the books including 3 new basketball courts. One of them I was supposed to paint in Singapore in early March, but it was the first project to be canceled, before the United States had woken up to the reality of COVID 19 impacts. Psychologically it's been difficult too, as it has been for everyone. I've been deep in some complex collaborations and each person has their own different perspective on the virus and how to adjust our plans. I'm finding that some people are being more patient and empathetic with one another and others still make demands like the world around us hasn't completely changed. It's been very stressful negotiating all of this while going through the personal shadow work as it's connected to the global. I've been following astrology like a freaking football game. It's the only anchor I have for trying to make decisions and understanding the intense emotions. I've also struggled with some of my family members who are politically conservative and make some very insensitive, inappropriate sometimes enraging comments. I'm worried about them and want to be closer to them at this time, but don't always see it as a source of safety or comfort.
What do you want to accomplish personally and/or professionally during this time?
I want to just make some art for myself. I've been reading a lot about the Shakers, who I've been visiting and studying over the last 10 + years, and their Gift Drawings. I've always been obsessed with them. I hope to work more on my meditation and intuition so I can make my own version of these types of drawings from Spirit.
What kind of world do you want to see on the other side of this?
Oof, this is tough. I know what I want to see, but it's really hard to even envision when I look at how our government is responding to those it's supposed to be serving.
How can people find you and support you and your work?
https://maria-molteni.squarespace.com/ / @strega_maria (instagram)
https://new-craft-artists-in-action.squarespace.com/ / @NewCraft_ArtistsinAction
I do hope to get a patreon up and running soon. More admin work! Heeeeelp!