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Unlearning Art School + Full-Time Realities | Marisa Avila-Sayler




Today I have a super real talk for you all about the realities of working your way into being a full time artist (one of our favorite topics here-- I know!). Our guest of honor is Marisa Avila-Sayler.


Marisa has been an artist and navigating the journey of being full time for 20 plus years. As such she brings a refreshing dose of realness when it comes to the practicalities of being a working artist, how to discern what's right for your own path, and what’s happening in schools and in the art world. We also jam on failure, process, permission to make what you love and much more. This one was as informative as it was mega inspiring.


We talked about…

  • Marisa’s journey with her art career

  • Balancing life with studio time

  • Networking and finding opportunities as an artist

  • The contradiction between growing as an artist and growing an art business/brand

  • Making bad art, accepting failure and painting what makes you happy

  • Unlearning lessons from art school


Wormlandia, 48" x 36" Colored pencil, acrylic and flashe on drafting film

About Marisa


Marisa Avila Sayler is a Los Angeles native who works in drawing, painting, and sculpture using both traditional and experimental media. She earned a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 2005, and an MFA from California State University, Fullerton in 2009. An artist since childhood, Marisa has always supported her art practice with more traditional career paths, namely education. Her teaching and educational field experience ranges from art exploration

with special needs preschoolers, to traditional undergraduate drawing and painting instruction, to doctorate-level lecture, curriculum design, and administration. Since 2018, Marisa has focused solely on her studio practice with occasional guest teaching, workshops, and visiting artist lectures. She has exhibited in numerous Los Angeles galleries, institutions such as the Torrance Art Museum and the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA, and her work is in private collections all over the world. Outside of the studio, Marisa and her spouse of 16 years are guiding their two exceptional young children in the art of being explorers of this universe.



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