Ed, a California native, (now living in Miami) recently spotted a painting from my mobile home park series at his friend’s beach house in La Jolla. He was so excited, that he took it off the wall to find out who the artist was. Ed was looking for something similar to the piece “Holiday Weekend” on my website and decided to commission a painting and purchase a small study from another project I was working on. “Do what you do best” he told me. “I like the exaggerated palm trees, the shadows, the density of the neighborhood, the details, the cloudy sky, I just love, love, love your art” he said.
When I make my mobile home paintings, I am filled with intense joy. I park my ego outside, get in the zone, stay curious and find myself endlessly challenged by this densely built environment juxtaposed with the sky and ocean beyond. I grew up on the coast, and consider myself a small town person living in a big city. At times, a little too trusting, but hey, that’s me. Early on, my Father glanced at the work I was developing and said to me- “really Marisa, trailer parks? We sent you to the most prestigious art school in the country and you want to make paintings of trailer parks? And I said, “That’s right Dad!”
I love the simplicity of the structures, consistent in size and materials. The sameness is what I personally identify with. I was a uniformed, Catholic school girl until college and discovered at a very young age that we are all decorated differently on the inside. The actual color of these homes and rooftops are a dull whitish color. I have taken great creative strides towards applying my own sense of color to evoke the neighborliness I feel these mobile home park communities possess. They are the last affordable frontier in Los Angeles and probably California. I love sharing this incredibly beautiful place and inspiring my collectors. Thank you so much Ed for hiring me to make this painting for you. I had a blast making it for you!
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