Mariolina, that's me.
I'm from Chicago but my parents were from Italy and I didn't realize just how Italian I was until I started Kindergarten, where the other kids didn't like eating squid, boiled pig's feet and tripe. I can trace my family tree back to 1583 and I am still in possession of my father's house on the Istrian peninsula, located in a tiny, medieval town. Someday, my home office will be there.

I started off my college career as a Theatre Major at Northwestern University and soon realized it would be wise to migrate over to the Art Department. I double-majored in Art and Italian and even got to take a class with Ed Paschke—talk about COLOR! While there I got my first taste of Art Direction by helping form a student-run ad agency

I was so spoiled. My first job out of college was as an Account Executive, in MILAN! The best part was simultaneously presenting storyboards in both Italian and English; the worst was flailing around in a media plan. I fooled no one. Through the generosity of our Creative Director, I was allowed to art direct an ad for Worcestershire sauce. I was hooked! I wanted to stay, but to become an Art Director I had to leave and come back to Chicago.

And so I did. I spent 10 years at Leo Burnett and got to work on everything!

 

I am surrounded
by things that make me happy, which include, but are not limited to, my two offspring and my spastic dog, Mobi. My latest pleasure is my re-introduction to painting, mostly watercolors for now. You can see more of them here. I also enjoy Greenland rolling and even built and authentic, Inuit hunting boat. Other skills include building fires and competitive swimming. And also my garden. Yes, that is freshly picked kale you see in my glorious, sky-blue 70's bathtub. And also my awesome, 70's bendy-bike. Like most visual people, I collect imagery. I take everything in and have a photographic memory when it comes to colors, shapes, designs, relationships, so many things "stick" in my head and get re-purposed as I work, like some Fascist-era report cards I found in the basement....

 

Color!
I love color. Every shade, tint and hue. I get lost in it sometimes. I make colors play nice and I can color-match ANYTHING. I fell in love with a bracelet I bought in Venice and decided to transform a dreary, Colonial-style dresser I'd found in the alley.

 

I like to make stuff.
Digital is great, but making a mess, making something with your hands that you can touch, break or accidentally throw in the washing machine is immeasurably satisfying. I have always worked with my hands, it started a long time ago when I thought it would be fun to fill a pair of my mom's pantyhose with paper maché. I've made puppets, pins, some spectacularly ugly jewelry, clothes of all sorts and lots of ceramics—I got the best glazes from Italy. I have refinished furniture, installed tile that I made myself and painted too many rooms to count. For the sake of being able to make the costumes that were in my head, I taught myself to sew when the eldest was small. Sometimes I make a Sperm whale head, and other times I make a pretty dress. Last year I started up a small business making custom-fitted masks of all sorts. You can see them here. I also like to rescue rejected neckties from the thrift store and fashion new, double-sided bow ties from them.