make.art.life. is home to Maria, Mark, Ruby, and Mr. Pickles, where we share our adventures in making, art and life!
Maria:
Hi, I’m Maria, and have an absolute love of pattern, color, and texture. I’ve been a freelance artist, illustrator, photographer, and maker of things for over 30 years.
After studying graphic design at Batley Art College in England (a long, long time ago, back in the days of Letraset), I worked for a short period at an advertising agency, but this wasn’t my calling, so I was delighted when an opportunity came up to be an artist in the Carlton Cards studio. After a couple of years of fantastic experience in the greeting card industry, I took the plunge and went freelance. My own boss!
Since then I’ve licensed over 3,000 of my designs, illustrated children’s books, and been on contract with companies like Hallmark.
As a photographer, I built a wedding and boudoir photography business with Mark, for which we received industry awards.
More recently I’ve turned to make one-of-a-kind fashion accessories—handbags, jewelry, and home decor, crafted from up-cycled designer textiles. Please step into our etsy store to see an array of unique lovelies!
Mark:
Hi, I’m Mark, and I’ve been a professional electronics engineer for over 30 years, in the UK and Silicon Valley, building products and chips. I’ve also been a maker (or DIYer) since I was a kid – usually taking things apart to see how they work. More recently, I’ve run maker faires in the US and China, worked with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and lots of startups, makers, and meetup groups in the San Francisco bay area.
A voracious learner, I’m passionate about sharing, and technology for good. Some of my recent projects have included drones, high-power rockets, and I finally finished making drawers for road-tripping in the 4Runner!
Ruby and Mr. Pickles:
Hi, we’re Ruby (the hairy grey one) and Mr. Pickles, and we love to travel and explore. We tend to let Mark and Maria come on our adventures…
We adore road-tripping, styling our hair out of the car windows, camping, sniffing, squirrels, digging for critters, and the beach. Our most favorite thing is probably sniffing at the beach!
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