Making Art in the Corners with Mari Russell

Mari Russell is a Los Angeles-based abstract painter, originally from Wisconsin. A former printshop owner, her work focuses on intuition, color, and exploration.

LFEO: Was there a seminal moment that got you interested in being an artist?

Mari: Ah I think back often trying to find the firework moment but don’t think it was one thing. I was allowed to draw and color during church services to keep me quiet, so I did a ton of that. After many hours of drawing in church for many years, I gained some skill, people started to notice, and teachers at school suggested I take art classes, which is where my interest grew. I remember always drawing and always making things with friends too. The arts/crafts was the only thing getting me through VBS/church camp/Sunday school etc. 

LFEO: What is your process with your work? Do you flow or do you have a goal or idea? Do you wait for inspiration or are you more militant?

Mari: I’ve been all the processes! Flow is when I feel the most alive and connected. I don’t like waiting for inspiration. It leaves me passive like I’m a channel for something outside of me instead of trusting what’s within.

LFEO: Do you hold yourself to any schedule or cycles in terms of producing work?

Mari: I’ve learned everything in my life comes in cycles. 

Lately I’ve been a part of an online attention reclaiming group that showed me how glorious holding a consistent and specific time to show up can be so I’m trying to do that more. 

It makes me feel like it’s church night and I’m the lord!

LFEO: When you feel like you don’t have the capacity to make anything new that is worthwhile, do you have any go-to’s to reignite inspiration or interest in your work?

Mari: Then it’s time for input! I like live music! Seeing other people inspired and/or moved by art! I’ve always been jealous of how directly music shares. it feels immediate and visceral. Deeply grateful for this beautiful form of expression. 

Everything I do is worthwhile, so just gotta show up and inspiration follows.

LFEO: I’m curious what you think of the art world in terms of how it relates to the artist, and where you see your own practice/work within the art community?

Mari: The art world cares about the art, not the artist.

Currently it feels best to keep my practice in the corners, less concerned with the formal gallery-ness of it all, and more interested in the connection, the power in the making, sharing, and communicating. Feels right rn.

LFEO: What are your opinions on AI and what you think the future role of the artist within humanity looks like?

Mari: My opinions are evolving. It’s really hard to deny AIs potential and presence. When you see AI knock out a 30 min admin task in 45 seconds, you can’t really deny its involvement in our future. I’ll gladly take the extra time, but I am terrified. 

I think a lot of being an artist holding space for humanity, complexity, connection, discomfort, the unknown. About questioning. Things AI can’t tune into. There will always be a need for artists minds, just maybe fewer paying gigs. 

LFEO: Having grown up in Wisconsin, what does Wisconsin feel like to you? Do you have any specific memories or sensations that bubble up when you think about it? It’s so blasé but it’s also very interesting and magnetic.

Mari: That’s exactly it, it’s magnetic. Wisconsin holds a kinda magic that only exists in that container. 

There’s a comfort in the blasé ness of it – a spaciousness. 

There’s much more of a rhythm with the seasons. There are constant reminders of the world moving through the universe.

Some of my favorite memories are of windy afternoons, the sun flickering through fast-moving cotton ball clouds. The shifting light and fast moving sky always stuck with me. 

LFEO: Why did you move to Los Angeles?

Mari: I tell people is that it was for work, and ultimately I guess it was, but mostly I grew tired of the limits of art I felt in the midwest. The midwest lends to some of the most beautiful art, don’t get me wrong, but there was some looseness I was looking for – more room to play.

Didn’t realize it at the time but I needed the distance and time to shake feeling over obligated to a life that didn’t suit me. I needed a new perspective. 

In many ways, LA reminds me of where I grew up in Central America so it feels familiar, and I love feeling more connected to my Latin heritage. Especially coming from Wisconsin where I was considered “exotic” and was constantly mistaken for another girl who was part Native American and also had olive skin. 

LFEO: Are there any physical spaces or places in the world that make you feel more charged up as a creative person? Or more whole or safe? I’ve been getting into how physical space sort of insidiously imposes itself on our lives, and can end up coloring or flavoring our own ideas. And specifically, I’m interested in how spaces or locations can enliven or inform us positively, and trying to define what about those spaces enact that feeling.

Mari: I think we underestimate just how deeply our physical environments shape us. I love that we’re just these sensitive little organisms constantly responding to light, texture, sound, and spatial energy, even if we’re not consciously aware of it. Constantly being flavored by everything around us.  

Color, temperature, and even ceiling height can affect our creativity, stress levels, and how we solve problems. I just read that  in the ’70s, jail cells and waiting rooms pink (I love pink) because it calmed people down! Whoa!

Personally I feel most alive creatively in warm and sunny fertile places.  I think part of the draw is biological, feeling abundance and safety, but part of it is sensory, too. Rich colors and a sense of possibility! 

LFEO: Does being an artist affect how you think about or exist in interpersonal relationships? And what do you think painting has taught you about yourself?

Mari: Painting has taught me that I’m sensitive. I tune in!