the art of marissa zamora dubois

from the darkness...peace

2011-07-18T03:07:00.001-07:00

a close up of a new piece. still a work in progress.

walnut flowers

2011-01-02T02:58:00.000-08:00

first drawing in a long time....first drawing of the year.

love is a mix tape

2010-02-26T02:16:00.000-08:00

gouache on paper.

more "hidden" images

2010-02-12T06:47:00.001-08:00

the meaning or story behind these images shall remain hidden.

secrets

2010-02-05T03:12:00.001-08:00

images based on the word "hidden".

gouache and ink on paper.

another image for "the art of evicting..."

2010-02-04T00:54:00.001-08:00

made-up embroidery

2010-02-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

this is my made-up embroidery. i don't know how to actually embroider correctly, but i'm trying to make art with this process anyway. this piece is a work in progress. about 45 hours worth of work here already. stay tuned for pictures of the finished piece.

2010-02-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

the potential adventures of the mysterious WaterMark!

2010-02-02T15:05:00.001-08:00

i'm playing around with the idea of making my advanced illustration studio book a comic book of sorts starring the mysterious WaterMark. this is his logo.

moving home

2010-01-27T04:50:00.001-08:00

this piece is for an assignment about my hometown. i've moved around so much, that i don't really have a "hometown". there was really only one thing that stayed with me when i moved from one place to another...my yellow hand-knitted blanket made by my grandmother. i associated that feeling of home with that blanket. so, the texture and colors of that blanket are the inspiration of the piece.

8" x 16" (had to be done as a two-page book spread), gouache on black canson paper.

emotion #1: love

2009-12-29T06:48:00.000-08:00

love...such a complicated emotion deserves a complicated illustration. i want to do a series of emotions based on my interpretation/experience with each emotion. this first one was kind of hard because there were a lot of different things i wanted to put in the piece. the final concept of the imagery in this piece was inspired by the claw game where you move the claw around to try and win a prize. the name of this one is called "love game".

these are photos of the project in progress. there are parts that i liked early on and am debating whether or not i should bring them back in or take something out. the 2nd photo is the "finished" piece and the 1st photo is an earlier stage of the piece. the orange of the figure in the center and of the large hand are really a red orange, not just orange.

i'm not sure if it's finished, yet, so any input you can give me would be much appreciated.

i am what i am and that's all that i am

2009-12-08T04:01:00.001-08:00

self portrait done in oil paint on 11" x 14" panel.

gotta get that chedda

2009-11-29T18:14:00.001-08:00

This is a project for Drawing Concepts 2. The assignment was to do an artist's limited edition of an existing product. So, I did White Cheddar cheez -its. The illustration on the back of the box says, "gotta get that chedda". I tried to make the box look all "blinged out" because I wanted to associate cheese and cheddar with money. The box comes with a black canvas shopping bag with the back illustration on it.

These pictures show my process...somewhat. I spent a total of 32 hours on this project. I'm tired of looking at cheez-its.

poor donkey

2009-11-13T23:06:00.000-08:00

This illustration is about the violence that is associated with hitting a pinata.

your heart is my home

2009-11-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

These are based off a quote by Stephen King from "IT"..."there are no good friends, no bad friends. Only friends you want, need to be with. People that build their houses in your heart." The first thought I had after reading that was to wonder about the people who take up too much room in our hearts, the people who demand more from us.

So, the first two pictures show a house that represents the good friend who takes your heart for what it is and makes it their home. The last three pictures are of the bad friend's house who tears your heart apart to rebuild their own space. They aren't satisfied with your heart has to offer.

This project is a work in progress. I want to make more of them representing different types of homes, different environments, which would represent different types of friends that we all keep in our lives.

Money Tree

2009-10-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

"As the seasons change, so do the leaves," is what the poster says on my money tree. This project is for an assignment about public art. I wanted make my own version of money that represents our country's present economic situation. The front of the bill shows the flag of China and says, "In China We Trust". The back has the magnetic strip along the back like a credit card with the authorized signature being "The United States". Of course, in small print is the "Not valid unless signed." After making the money, it just seemed that the next step would be to make a tree out of it...because it seems that these IOUs are in abundance.

I put the tree on Colorado Blvd. and watched as people walked by. Some people jokingly went to pull the money off the tree, but no one actually did it. Mostly just people walking by reading and looking.

my broham sam

2009-09-30T02:09:00.001-07:00

week 3 homework. just finished right now. my baby brother, sam.

Portraits from class

2009-09-29T23:37:00.001-07:00

the top picture is my in-class portrait from week 3 this term. already showing improvement. i'm pretty proud of myself for that. the bottom one is my homework from week 2 this term. my usual painting style. needs to be loose and i need to practice edge control, playing with the old "lost and found". we'll see what happens the rest of the term as i try to let myself loosen up a bit.

Big Blue House Publishing Co.

2009-08-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

This is the finished logo design for Big Blue House Publishing Co. The client has a country, mid-western aesthetic, so I tried to communicate that in the logo design. The blue is the same color as the actual house that has been depicted in the logo.

***click image to enlarge

Psychic cootie catcher

2009-08-14T16:27:00.001-07:00

This is my fortune teller (a.k.a. cootie catcher) about my psychic experience. I went to see a psychic for this project and she did a tarot card reading. This project is what I can up with. It has my interpretations of the cards that were revealed during my reading and underneath it all lies the ultimate question regarding the experience...do i "belive" in psychic truth? The psychic I went to had a sign outside her home that said "Belive in Psychic Truth". The misspelling on their sign was accidental, but the misspelling in my artwork is intentional. Hope you like the piece as much as I do. Pretty proud of this one.

New poem called "Blanket"

2009-08-05T00:21:00.000-07:00

Lying awake in the dark,
her mind is filled with light.
Lying awake in silence,
her ears are filled with noise.
Projected images of yesterday,
Hopes for tomorrow
float to the top like debris
waiting to be cleared away
to uncover a pool of clarity.

She is blind to the flashing lights
as the seconds, minutes, hours
sail away without regard
for what is being left behind.
And although her blanket smells like feet
her love for him grows.

Thinking about life
Thinking about love
Thinking about tasks that are long overdue
keeps her thinking
for sleep is long gone
and it's time to prepare for a new beginning.

Time came and went tonight,
without any warning of the soon awakening sun.
Now all that's left to do
is watch the sun stretch out its arms from slumber
as the blanket of the horizon
is pulled away to cover the moon.

The Legend of Bob Marley

2009-07-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

a CD cover design for the album "Legend" by bob marley and the wailers. i did this a couple terms ago for my expressive type class. click image to enlarge.

I give you my heart

2009-07-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

this card design is a slipper orchid with a heart growing within the bloom. the text says, "this valentine's day, i give you my heart."

Beauty school graduate card

2009-07-14T14:03:00.001-07:00

the text says "congratulations on your beauty school graduation". perfectly primped lips grow inside these exotic flowers. the perfect shmallmark card for your college dropout/beauty school graduate.

Unleashed apparel logo

2009-07-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

logo design and color scheme for unleashed apparel.

L.A. Farmer's Market class trip

2009-07-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

the only somewhat successful drawing I made that day. the assignment is to take all of our drawings/photographs from our trips and make 2 finished illustrations. i like this one and might work on it some more. stay tuned for the final.

dr. sketchy's dani doll

2009-07-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

dr. sketchy's july 5, 2009 session drawings. met gary baseman and james jean that day. awesome!

Shmallmark Greetings

2009-06-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

two illustrations from a series for my color theory class. i wanted to do illustrations of flowers made out of body parts and ended up creating cheesy layouts for cheesy greeting cards. each layout has a tagline (which would go on the inside of these hypothetical cards) that relates to the body part growing within the flower.

medium: digital photoshop painting

2009-06-25T00:41:00.000-07:00

Healing Heart Logo

2009-06-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

after having open-heart surgery for the second time last year, I felt the need to make art about my experience and came up with two ideas: one...a logo of a healing heart, and two...a painting about my gift of life. here is the logo. the painting will be posted as soon as it's finished.

Envy

2009-06-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

a pattern illustrating envy. the green mold is envious of, and therefore taking over, the wealth and beauty of the golden apple. the top image is a close up of the design.

medium: gouache

Neutral

2009-06-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

a free form poem written june 22, 2009. i'm not a poet, but i do like to think of myself as a vessel for the creative energy gods. these verses are to be considered the words of my creative angel guardians. if you like it, then it was all me. if you don't, i was possessed when i wrote it. you be the judge.

NEUTRAL

One day I was walking down the block
Trying my hardest to think of what to say
My brain was on overload
Almost stuck in neutral I want to say
But then I'm having such a hard time trying to find the right thing to say
That maybe neutral isn't the right word after all
Either way
My mind was stuck in a haze
And a crowd was gathering on the street
And in my mind
All looking at the trainwreck
The wreck both on the street and in my ever-cloudy mind
And they won't stop watching and waiting for
Something to happen
Something to explode
Something to implode
My brain might just cave in on itself without ever having found the right word
And then it all comes together with
A snap
A flash
A turning on of a light bulb in my head
It's music
It's jazz
It's opera
It's rock
It's classical
It's Mozart
It's the beat of the drum
It's the strumming of the guitar
It's the sound of a song
It's the voice that keeps playing through my mind
And it follows me wherever I go
Always on my mind
Like Georgia
The place I found to lose myself
The place I lost to find myself
And I'm glad and mad and sad that
The right word can never be said
Only played
Or sung
Or drawn.

Heart
It's inside us all
But some of us don't know it's there until it's broken
Like the train
Sometimes like the bulb
It gets burnt out
And no one ever does that kind of a thing to themselves
Because it's beyond our control
It's only by the hand of someone else can a heart be broken
And maybe that's what makes heart such a weird word
And maybe that's why it was so hard for me to think of it
Or maybe I'm just afraid of it because it's cheesy.