Stella Mar expresses life’s beauty in art

Stella Mar was born in Michigan. She went to college there but dropped out only to further her education by living and experiencing the world around her. She traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains and she worked at a hiking lodge where groceries were packed in by llama train. She moved on to Knoxville,Tenn., then the Everglades before a road trip that brought her to Spokane.

Mar, 28, is a work in progress. Even her name, Stella Mar, could be the title of a painting, describing her existence among the stars, near Mars.

“I’ve been a creative soul from the beginning, always linking things and life’s experiences together with a strange vision,” she said. “Growing up, I was more interested in how things worked and what was behind the next tree than what I looked like in a dress. I’ve always had a sort of zest for more and more beauty … in life and in life experiences.”

Her medium of choice is acrylic and her style is intuitive and abstract, filled with pod shapes, movement and splatter.

One piece titled “Inevitable Storm” is done in deep dark colors of perhaps the sky with hints of light, perhaps planets, behind deep dark smears and streaks of paint.

Mar is bold and brave, open and honest about who she is.

“There’s nothing more important than being able to be open with how I’m feeling and who I am,” she said. She recently cut off all her hair.

“We have the potential to change the world every day. It’s a waste to spend time on things that don’t really matter, like my hair.”

She is extreme, she is high and low, and she is bipolar.

“I feel that it would be a misrepresentation of myself and my creative experience if I didn’t admit that my experiences and emotions about them are magnificently magnified by my experience with bipolar disorder,” she said.

As she works to understand her highs and lows, she paints.

“I find the world such an exquisitely beautiful place. Even in darkness and sorrow there is beauty if you look closely. I choose to view life this way and express this viewpoint through my everyday life and my paintings.”

Her South Hill home reflects her mania and her creativity. Her glass coffee table serves as a palate; a paint-splattered sheet is tacked to a wall behind shelves of art supplies and books, and stacks of paintings lean against the other walls. It smells of incense.

Mar’s day job also allows for creativity. She is the assistant program director at radio station 103.1, KCDA. She does traffic reports and the Local Lounge on Sunday nights.

Her co-workers are supportive of her creative endeavors and she is grateful for that.

She is back in school as a junior at Eastern Washington University. She is constantly on the go to learn and experience all that she can. Though she has been painting for years it has only been recently that she has taken the leap to share her work with a critical public and the reception has been warm.