Marisa Andropolis

Art has been a part of Marisa's life since she was a child. Growing up in a sci-fi household, Marisa would watch Star Wars with her dad as a child and spend hours drawing each space ship trying to get it as accurate as possible. She also had a favorite cartoon growing up, Ren and Stimpy, and the idea of having a chihuahua of her own soon grew into an obsession of drawing a chihuahua over and over again, which became her trademark in the Andropolis household. From this, she continued to pursue art, using it as a way to express herself in ways she could not otherwise. She continues to find ways to put her sci-fi influences into her work (sometimes even hiding it for viewers to discover upon close examination).

Marisa is a traditionally trained painter. In 2007, she spent three months at an atelier in the south of France mastering a Northern Renaissance painting technique. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in two-dimensional studies with a minor in Italian Renaissance art history from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH in 2011. From this, Marisa went on to pursue her Post-Baccalaureate at Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy with an emphasis in Painting and Art Conservation/Restoration from 2012- 13. In 2018, she received her Master of Fine Art in studio art at The University of Mississippi where she spent a year after teaching foundations as a Visiting Instructional Assistant Professor. She currently teaches painting, drawing, and 2D Design at Elgin Community College in Elgin, Illinois and is the Director of Education at One River School of Art and Design in Evanston, IL. She has exhibited her work nationally in New York, Chicago, California, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and Mississippi and internationally in Italy and France.

With an interest in portraiture, Marisa continues to search to combine aspects of people that are visible as well as hidden away from society. She works in themes of revealing and concealing parts of the self that compose of a person's identity. In her current body of work, she continues questioning notions related to identity and portraiture. These questions may, or may never be truly answered, but she aims to create portrait paintings that bring her one step closer to a personal resolution with each new painting.

Marisa always finds a way to put herself into her work. She creates different images of herself to explore her own identity, interests, and even issues. She opens herself up and puts it on the canvas to share with the world. However, she has a beautiful way of allowing people to create their own feelings and bring their own experiences to her work, and not tell them what they need to or should feel. She takes from her experiences, but leaves it ambiguous enough to give viewers the freedom to react to them. Her work is not merely about portraiture, but intends to pose questions about identity and how we view reality, while concurrently orchestrating/creating narratives for the viewer. Her ultimate goal is to leave the viewer pondering, wondering what it truly means to be yourself. 

Marisa lives in Chicago, IL. She is open to commissions of all subject matter. Prices are based on size. If you are interested, please send a message in the provided contact section.