Today we’d like to introduce you to Cera Marie.
Hi Cera, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve loved art since childhood and spent much of my time drawing, crafting, sewing, and painting walls. My mom fostered the interest, and most gifts through childhood were arts and building kits. My first mural was in elementary school when I convinced my parents to let me paint my bedroom walls, and I was immediately hooked.
I attended DAAP at the University of Cincinnati after high school and graduated with a Fine Arts Degree, concentrating on both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art. After graduation I moved to Columbus and started Studio Cera Marie, showing in art festivals and shows as an emerging artist in large-scale paintings.
In 2015, I had my oldest son and dropped down to a handful of client art projects a year while our three children were in their baby stages. I was still studying art and business, but my time was more limited for the creative side.
In 2021, I jumped back into art more intensively. I jokingly say I’m a re-emerging artist, and this year moved back into the public art arena. The kids are more independent now but never too far away while I’m creating, and it’s exciting that they’ve hit the stages now where they can be doing their own projects simultaneously.
These days I am working on private and corporate commissions and my first show next spring, as well as applying for more public art. This summer my sister and I painted a 2-story outdoor mural for the City of St. Mary’s, and this fall two of my sisters and I will be creating an outdoor mural for the City of Columbus. All of my siblings and husband fell into professional creative or engineering/construction fields, and my next goal is to convince them to join me in the public art sphere on the sculptural and installation side.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being an entrepreneur was a bumpy ride getting started, and as the years have passed the challenges have shifted.
Early on I had to get very comfortable with rejection and failures and force myself to move forward, and in the first decade, there were times I had to tearfully talk myself out of completely changing career paths. But I don’t think I could keep myself from creating even if I tried- I like to keep my hands moving and can’t stay in one space for too long before I’ve scoped out a dozen new potential projects. There is an intensely practical business side to an art career that isn’t taught in school and has to be self-navigated and also demands a significant percentage of the time.
When my kids were babies, I often felt restless and frustrated having multitudes of projects build up in my mind that I physically could not make time to actuate- I was attempting to build a series and clientele in sometimes only 3 available hours a week. These days I still am navigating the balance of motherhood and creation time, but the main struggle is space- the projects have happily outgrown my office, studio, and garage, and we are on the hunt to procure a better studio space.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My artwork falls mostly into two themes, one being large-scale paintings/murals and the other being custom acrylic and oil portraiture. My large-scale work is done both for my studio work and by commission. It is often landscape based – abstracted, vibrant, with a lot of visual texture and brushstrokes. I love brilliant, fully saturated colors and I strive for them to be something that fits well in the space, draws viewers closer, and is beautiful from any distance.
My portraits are similarly colorful but tweaked to fit client requests. I enjoy celebrating people, exploring human relationships and love, immortalizing memories, and sometimes creating an imaginary familial moment that exists only in paint.
Lately, I’ve been incorporating more portraiture into large-scale works. In 2019 my sister Allison and I created a custom 9×22’ modernized replica of the Last Supper (for a nonprofit restaurant that donates money to area families in times of crisis in Osgood, OH). It was the first time I had painted 13 life-size figures in one painting, and it built our confidence to incorporate them on an even larger scale.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking.
To be completely honest, as the oldest of seven kids I am much more of a rule-follower than a risk-taker. I research a project to death before I work on it to be ready for every variable, and I make sure I am coming into it as prepared as possible. That being said, I also thoroughly enjoy being challenged. I get a lot of thrill out of projects that force me out of my comfort zone, and in my own work am constantly giving myself difficult tasks and learning opportunities.
The best projects involve expanding skillsets with new tools, new surfaces, and new methods.
I would say leading an artist/entrepreneur’s life in itself is inherently a form of risk-taking. You are constantly exposing yourself and your work to public scrutiny, and you are choosing to lead a life where the business falls mostly on your shoulders. You need to be constantly learning and making yourself uncomfortable if you want to grow in depth as an artist. You are navigating a path that is not yet forged.
Pricing:
- Custom portraits start at $2.50/square inch with a minimum of $1000.
Contact Info:
- Website: studioceramarie.com
- Instagram: @studioceramarie
- Facebook: @studioceramarie
