About Maari

Using photo-surrealism, I get to ignite our inner worlds with courage, delight, discovery, and hope.

I do this by creating visual-vitamin-like art for the heart, mind, and soul.

Hi there,

My name is Maari. I'm so glad you are visiting FIGHTSONG Studio!

So you kinda want to get to know me, huh? Well, first know this….

I smile inside my head, like a lot! And outside too.
I unabashedly sing random songs and talk out loud to myself.
I can netfilx-binge with the best of ‘em!
I have a special bond with melted foods, like butter, chocolate, and cheese.
And I unapologetically make people cry.

This last one is a fairly new thing. It actually started a few years ago when I began making this new (to me) breed of artwork. It just keeps happening. But people thank me afterward and tell me it’s a good thing.... so I’m going with it.

Currently, I live surrounded by three mountain ranges in a beautiful tiny city called Redding in northern California. I’m an outdoorsy-Oregonian who grew up in eclectic Austin, Texas as the youngest of a wildly creative, hard-working, adventurous, tightly knit family of five. I’ve worked as a portrait and commercial photographer for over a decade and have traveled to countless corners world to find the best…potholes, and to celebrate the legacy of a well-known, controversial man named Jesus, often with camera in tow.

Through my adventures and my photography career, I discovered that people grow potholes when we let their surroundings, or circumstances, dictate our beliefs (myself included). Healthy or toxic, our belief systems affect everything in our life. So how do we adjust our belief system?

I believe our imagination has a big role to play in aligning our thinking, feeling and believing. Therefore, I make art that is as functional as it is beautiful to ignite our imaginations to help us grow good beliefs, and smooth out those potholes ;)

As you might have concluded by now, I have a deep conviction that God is in a great mood. It was in that particular connection that my own “potholes” started to get worked out, and then a whole new dose of freedom and creativity were unlocked deeeeeeep inside. It was the kind of freedom that makes you awkwardly "happy-cry" in public places….

I’m telling you this because it affects what I create. My inspiration is triggered by a simple prayer and posture, on earth as it is in heaven. And then, after some blood sweat and tears, these pictures happen….

I am often asked if they are paintings. Nope. I am an adventurer-to-the core so I leap at the opportunity to photograph all the components on locations near and far and hand-stitch them together digitally in my studio. It is a labor of love and exploration.

I'm very excited you found me, and I’d love to get to know you too, so send me a note!

Thanks for reading,
Maari

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Using photo-surrealism, I get to ignite our inner worlds with courage, delight, discovery, and hope.I do this by creating visual-vitamin-like art for the heart, mind, and soul.

Using photo-surrealism, I get to ignite our inner worlds with courage, delight, discovery, and hope.

I do this by creating visual-vitamin-like art for the heart, mind, and soul.